


Finding A Home

by 1_dont_care



Category: The Last of Us, The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Clem is good at fighting, F/F, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minnie isn't crazy AU, Multi, Smut, Sophie Lives AU, Suicide Attempts (mentioned), There are a lot of characters - Freeform, i don't know how to tag, like too good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2020-12-27 21:11:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 49
Words: 112,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1_dont_care/pseuds/1_dont_care
Summary: So, this is my first fic, so I'm sorry for any mistakes, and I'm also sorry for my bad english, not my native language, I just hope someone will like it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first fic, so I'm sorry for any mistakes, and I'm also sorry for my bad english, not my native language, I just hope someone will like it.

Clementine and Ellie go through the forest with no real destiny or target, actually Ellie is kinda hoping to find Dina, she was kidnapped about week or two ago, but she tries to find her for a couple of days and no luck so far. Clem can see how tired Ellie is, last time she saw her sleep was three days ago, and not even long, about three or four hours. “Are you sure you don’t want to stop for a while?” Clem asks. “No.” Ellie shakes her head. “Okay, but you know, if you’ll change your mind tell me.” Clem says, she doesn’t like that Ellie thinks that she needs to push forward, no matter what.

Girls go forward for about ten minutes and then both of them see smoke coming from some buildings with strong walls. “What did we got when we were last time in Prescott?” Ellie asks while looking at buildings trying to check if something moves there, but it’s too far to see anything. 

“Well… I got a new guitar, why do you ask?” Clem answers and stands next to Ellie, but she doesn’t even try to look closer to buildings. 

“Nothing, but we’re low on ammo, maybe we should check what’s happening over there.” Ellie says and looks on Clem. 

“I don’t know… How should we know if anyone is there?” Clem says and checks how many rounds she has in her pistol, and Ellie is right, about seven rounds, not much. 

“Stop being stubborn.” Ellie scoffs and Clem is taken back by what she told. 

“Me stubborn? Okay, let’s go.” Clem says and goes forward closer to buildings, she doesn’t like it when someone calls her stubborn, she has her reasons to not risk her life for some food, or bullets, well… Clem doesn’t care if she’ll die, she cares for Ellie’s life, Ellie has people to live for, friends, girlfriend, Clem not so much, well yeah, Ellie and Dina, but apart from them no one else, but everybody else is dead or Clem doesn’t know where they are. 

“Okay, noted. Whenever I’ll call you stubborn you’ll do everything else I want to. I’ll need to remember that when Gabe’ll be in Prescott.” Ellie teases and nudges Clem a little. 

“Fuck. Off. I don’t like him.” Clem quickly defends herself with truth and only truth. 

“Okay, since I have met you never tried, nor wanted to try and be with someone.” Ellie says, and Clem looks on her with a smile. 

“I’m with you right now, aren’t I?” Clem jokes, she knows what Ellie has on mind, and Ellie sighs. 

“Like, me and Dina?” Ellie asks and Clem shakes her head. 

“Never, I don’t want to hurt anyone by my death.” Clem answers and Ellie sighs again, she’s surprised that Clem never tried to be with someone. “But you know that having someone is actually nice? Death is normal in this world, it doesn’t matter if you like it or not.” Ellie tries to convince Clem to at least try, but to no avail, one of brunette's traits are extreme stubbornness, if she wants to do something she will, no matter the cost. 

“You’ll meet someone and you won’t be able to keep yourself from liking that person. Or even thinking about them.” Ellie says from experience with Dina and Clem sighs. 

“Can we not talk about it? You’re acting like you’re my mother.” Clem scoffs and Ellie smiles. 

“I did take care of you since you were thirteen didn’t I?” Ellie teases. 

“Yeah, but the only thing close to that was helping me to not bleed out to death, sometime later we agreed to buy an apartment on us, from mine and your hard work for Prescott, apart from that? Not much. Plus you’re only three years older than me.” Clem says, and Ellie shrugs, she doesn't really care about that Clementine is younger than her considering the shit she's already did. 

“Yeah, but I’m the one who is full adult, you’re only sixteen. Well technically. I wouldn't be able to drink yet.” Ellie reminds and Clem sighs. 

“Shut up. We’re close.” Clem shuts her up and looks around to see if she can do anything to look behind high walls, but without risking her neck she can’t, girls slowly walk towards the front gate, but then two carts with people inside and around them are riding from the gate, and Clem quickly shoves herself and Ellie on the ground and hopes that armed people didn’t see them. 

“What the hell?” Ellie asks and Clem closes her mouth with a hand and with the other one points at people and Ellie nods in confirmation that she sees them. Clem takes a second look and she sees thirteen people plus about six in carts. 

“What do we do?” Ellie whispers and Clem sees that three of them are left behind. 

“They left three of them behind probably looking for supplies, but they're armed with assault rifles… We could use them, but attacking them is stupid. Okay, let’s wait until the rest will be gone and then we’ll try to quietly take them out.” Clem explains her plan to which Ellie nods in agreement. Both of them wait around five minutes and takes another look around and when they don’t see anyone they hide in bushes next to the main road and take a look at the main courtyard where three armed men threaten some people. 

“Where are the rest?” Man with sawn-off asks some tall redhead. 

“There isn’t anyone left. Only us.” Redhead answers and man shakes his head and grabs another redhead that looks the same, apart from hair which was longer. 

“I’m going to ask again, and don’t lie or I’ll blow her head off, where’s the rest?” The man asks again and redhead cries and begs for him to stop and man hits her in the head with a sawn-off, redhead hits the ground and doesn’t move, but for sure she isn’t dead. 

“And what? There’s three of them, and looking at what happens in there, doesn’t help us at all.” Ellie complains and Clem sighs and looks to another part of the courtyard and sees two other people, one is wincing in pain and the other one is passed out. 

“We come in there when they don’t look and then we’ll see if we have to we’ll shoot them.” Clem says and Ellie nods again and she starts to think how they’ll come in, but then Clem just walks in, and Ellie without much of a choice follows her thinking ‘Yep, it happened she’s insane.’ Both of them hide behind tree and Ellie quickly looks around and sees that the man that hit redhead is going further from the rest of bandits of some sort and looks around him and fortunately doesn’t notice girls right next to a tree, and Clem takes her knife out. 

“Don’t kill him, maybe he knows something important.” Ellie suggests, Clem nods and walks off slowly to the man from behind and when she reaches him she hit him in the head and man lies on the ground, but he’s still conscious and Clem hits him again finally making man lose his consciousness. Clem makes sure that the rest can’t see unconscious men and walks back to Ellie. 

“What now?” Ellie asks and Clem look to another man, one of them is sitting on stairs and the other is aiming to the redhead, she doesn’t know why but doesn’t question it. 

“Okay… I’ll take the one on the stairs, and when he’s dead you’ll take out another.” Clem says and Ellie nods, she agrees on Clem’s plans because she can’t think of any better. Clem is going with a longer route, but safer one, and when she’s right next to the stairs and plans on climbing on them from she hear some crack from under her shoe, she stepped on a stick. 

“Fuck…” Clem curses under her breath, man is calling out, and stands up from stairs and goes to the place from which he heard a noise, and Clem attacks him with knife cutting his face and eye, and as a result man drops his rifle. 

“Bitch!” Man screams and pins Clem to the wall with one hand and tries to choke her, meanwhile, Ellie hears screaming and looks towards Clem and sees her pinned against the wall and the other man pointing a gun at her, Ellie knows that she has no time and charges towards her target and stabs him in the neck, she didn’t even realize when she stabbed him, but still just to be sure she stabs him in the head, to make sure he’s dead, and that he won’t come back as a walker, Clem knees man between his legs and takes her chance and stabs him in the neck, blood covering her hand. “Gross.” Clem says and takes out the knife and stabs man again in the head, just to be sure. Clementine walks towards Ellie with fear that Ellie won’t be happy about what happened. 

“What the fuck happened?” Ellie asks with a raised voice. 

“I stepped on a stick, but we’re alive.” Clem waves it off and Ellie scoffs. 

“Barely.” Clem looks around and she doesn’t know what to do, she didn’t think what to do after they’ll take care of bandits, and then she got an idea. Ellie almost never liked Clementine's plans as they were simple to the point where they were stupid. 

“Go tie that man I knocked out, I’ll help the wounded.” Clem commands and Ellie walks off to that man, while Clem walks to a man on the ground with a stab wound in his shoulder. 

“Who the hell are you?” Man asks, his voice is filled with anger and pain. She looks at the wound, the bleeding won't kill him, but if the wound gets infected it will be the reason he'll die. 

“Someone who saved your ass. Where do you have medical supplies?” Clem asks, actually wanting to help the wounded man. 

“You think I’m stupid enough to tell you where is it?” Man asks and Clem nods. 

“No, unless you want to die." 

“Okay… Nurse office.” Man tells and points towards building and Clem runs off there, while Ellie pulls out a rope from her backpack and ties the man on the ground. 

"You better know something." She mutters under her nose.


	2. Chapter 2

Clementine goes into a building and looks around and immediately regrets that she didn’t ask for directions, she never been here, but she managed to make harder things than looking for nurse office, looking from room to room she finds some classrooms, bathroom and at the end of corridor walls of which is covered with insults for a guy named Ericson, she finds some room that looks like nurse office, at least she thinks so by finding medical supplies. Clem quickly takes what she needs, needle, peroxide, threads, and bandages, and as she sees bandages she’s reminded about wounds on her back, it ain’t bad, but she didn’t clean she didn’t have what she needed to that, but maybe they’ll let her to use some of their supplies to properly patch her wounds. As she goes back to the courtyard she sees through one window that Ellie is done with tying bastard that Clem knocked out and Ellie seems pissed, but that’s no surprise, and Clem is worried that she’s pissed at her because she was the one that took Dina for one of the jobs for Prescott where she got kidnapped, that community grew only bigger since Tripp and Eleanor came back there, of course, it wasn’t easy to start almost from nothing, but they did it, and they had the support of New Frontier. Clementine walks out from the building and quickly makes her way to the man still wincing in pain. “Wow, I thought that you’ll run away with our supplies.” Man actually seems impressed, Clementine sighs. 

“If that was the case then I’d kill you as soon as I knew where are your supplies… Okay, this may sting a little.” 

Clem warns and pours peroxide into the wound and man screams even more than this one time when Clem did it to herself when she was eleven, when Clem is sure that wound is clean, she picks up needle and puts threads through it. 

“It’ll be even worse.” Clem says and man just nods, without warning Clem starts stitching his wound, it’s ain’t easy when he’s throwing himself from side to side. 

“Ellie!” Clem calls for her friend when she got enough of his throwing around, Ellie looked at her and saw her gesturing for her to come closer. 

“Yeah?” Ellie asks and really tries not to laugh at the man that actually looks tough, but he’s crying when he’s getting patched. 

“Hold him.” Clem more asks than commands, there aren’t any threat, at least not to them, Ellie complies and holds a man and he can’t move his arms and higher half of his body that much which makes Clem’s job easier, while she ends it. 

“How about him?” Clem asks about the man that Ellie was tying up, she saw that Ellie tied him up, but she needs some details. 

“Well, he won’t be able to do anything, that’s for sure.” Ellie explains and Clem nods. 

“So, you can get up now, I don’t even know why you didn’t try to do something about those bandits.” Clem says, and man scoffs. 

“I was wounded, that’s the first thing, and secondly I didn’t have a weapon.” Man tries to defend himself while standing up, but Clem’s eye catches some knife on the ground that was under the man, and picks it up and can see how red face of the man is. 

“So I assume it’s not yours?” Clem teases, and the man takes his knife. 

“Can I know your name?” Man asks, Ellie and Clem looks at him and shakes their heads. 

“First you.” Ellie says, Clem wanted to say the same, but from the first look, Ellie looks much more threatening than her, which has it uses when they worked together at Prescott it wasn’t often, but every time was interesting, to say the least. “Mitch. Your turn.” Mitch answers and Clem and Ellie look at themselves and nods, they understand each other without words for the most time. 

“I’m Clementine, and she’s Ellie.” Clementine answers Mitch’s question and he just wanders off, not even noticing two of his friends? Clem and Ellie don’t know how well they knew each other. 

“Go for the guy with dreads, I’ll take care of her.” Clem suggests, and Ellie nods and walks off to the man with dreads while Clem goes to the redhead that got smacked by a man with a sawn-off. Clem knees in front of the knocked out girl and think how she should wake her up, and she has two ideas, one is to pour water on her face, but looking on how less she has, she decides on the other one which is slapping girl, and she does just that leaving a red mark on girl’s face. 

“What the hell!” A girl wakes up and looks around with confused look, and is becoming even more confused when a girl that she doesn’t recognize wakes her up, well that doesn’t stop her from thinking that girl is quite beautiful, but then she feels a sting on her face and rubs her face. 

“What happened?” 

“We kinda saved your asses.” Clem answers and reaches her hand toward the girl and picks her up when the other one grabs it. 

“Wait. We? There’s more of you?” Clem nods. 

“Yeah, but only my friend no one else, we won’t kill you.” Clem tries to calm down when she sees the terrified expression of the other girl. She looks around her and runs off, Clementine doesn’t know where and she ain’t taking any chances and runs after her, but taller girl runs like hell was chasing her, and Clem didn’t have the energy for this, she just now realized how tired she is, she runs down to open cellar and knees next to another girl, her twin as Clem noticed earlier. 

“You could tell me that you’ll run off just like that.” Clem says with a pissed voice, she could shot her, how could she know that girl wasn’t running for a gun, but that wouldn’t make sense and Clem knew that. The girl isn’t even listening to her, she shakes her sister and tells her to wake up, and looks up to Clem with pleading sight, brunette knees down too and checks the pulse of the girl, and she’s alive. 

“Don’t worry, she’s alive.” Clem calms down, the girl looks a little bit relieved. 

“Could you wake her up?” She asks, and Clem nods, slapping girl in the face with about the same force as she did to the other one, but she ain’t waking up, and Clem sighs. 

“I’m sorry.” Clem apologies, she doesn’t even know to who and slaps girl again, but with much more force and that she wakes up, she jerks up and immediately moves to her sister when she sees her. 

“Who is she?” She whispers to her sister, red mark, and tears from the amount of pain start to show up. 

“Girl that saved us. I don’t really know her name.” The taller sister says and Clem stands up. 

“Clementine, Clem for short.” Clem introduces herself while the other girls are standing up too. 

“Did you saw a little boy? Around ten years old?” Shorter one asks with hope in her eyes and to her disappointment, Clem shakes her head. 

“Soph, we saw him getting pushed into that cart.” Taller says, and both of them looks like a train just hit them. 

“I introduced myself, how about you do the same?” Clem asks and she then realizes how cold that sounded. 

“I’m Minerva or Minnie for short, and she’s Sophie.” Minnie says, her eyes are full of tears, but she tries to hide it. 

“My friend is Ellie.” Clem introduces Ellie, she knows that her friend won’t trust those people, but something about them is different then other people they met, most importantly they don’t try to kill them. 

“You were asking about some boy, who is he?” Clem asks as they walk out from cellar, she just hears sobbing from behind. 

“Our brother… He got kidnapped. What about people that weren’t kidnapped?” Sophie asks, she actually expects the worst. 

“Well, I patched up this Mitch guy, and my friend is taking care of the one with dreads, we didn’t saw anyone else.” Clem answers and she can hear a gasp when bodies of raiders can be seen. 

“Who did that?” Sophie asks, even if she knows who did that, and lets go of her sister. 

“Me and Ellie, we got one alive though.” Clem shrugs, she doesn’t treat it like it’s something big, she and Ellie once managed to capture ten different bandits alive, it wasn’t easy, they almost got caught, but the quick throw to head with a rock worked. 

“You got one alive? You think that he knows where are the rest?” Minnie asks with hope. 

“Probably, but you don’t really seem in shape to fight with armed raiders.” Clem gives her point of view and doesn't say that she isn't believing they could fight them even if they were all in perfect shape, she doesn’t hear any kind of reaction from them. 

“Wait, you found us two, Mitch and Louis, where’s Omar? He didn’t get kidnapped... As far as I know at least.” Minnie asks, she was conscious when raiders were leaving the courtyard. 

“We didn’t saw anyone else, look for him if he ain’t here, he’s kidnapped too.” Clem says and girls nod and walk off in different directions, while Minnie and Sophie look for Omar at gates, Clem immediately walks to the flipped table and looks behind it, and sees a boy with a bullet wound and blood around him, he doesn't breathe, but just to be sure Clem checks his pulse, and that only confirms what she thought he’s dead, probably bleed out to death. 

“I found him!” Clem screams towards siblings as Ellie is probably waking up the other man on the ground, twins come towards her, there are relieved expressions, but as soon as they see a body one of them starts crying while the other one is pissed, but there are hearable sobs from her too. 

“Fucking Marlon…” Sophie says under her breath, but Clem and Minnie heard her. 

“What did he do?” Minnie asks while Clem is sitting quietly listening to the conversation. 

“He knew about them, he knew about raiders, that’s what I know, nothing more.” Sophie admits and Minnie is even more pissed, not only her friend lied to her but her sister knew about it too. 

“If he told us about them, maybe then they wouldn’t kidnap anyone from here or at least fewer people.” Minnie supports herself on the table, while Ellie walks towards them, and stands next to the brunette, she saw in her eyes that she wants to help them, she didn't exactly liked this but wouldn't argue about it either. 

“What should we do with him?” Clem asks when twins get back to them. 

“We dig graves there.” Minnie points at the place behind Clem. 

“Do you have a shovel? I ain’t digging it with plastic cups, and spoons.” Ellie asks because she’s already sure that Clem will want to help them and hears steps behind her, man that she woken up is there, he earlier said that he needs a while for himself. 

“Hello ladies- What the hell happened?” Louis, as Clem found out from twins, and Ellie knows his name as he introduced himself to her, asks. “He bled out to death.” Clem explains and Louis doesn’t look good. 

“So can I know if you have that shovel?” Ellie repeats her question crossing her arms in impatience and growing annoyance. 

“In the greenhouse, but infected are there.” Sophie answers as Minnie shakes her head, she still can’t believe what happened. 

“Should we help you?” Louis asks, and Clem shakes her head with a confident smirk she made just so they won't worry too much. 

“No, we’ll manage, just if you could bring body to the graveyard. So where’s the greenhouse?” 

“Go right from where we dig graves, you should get there, and Clem if you could talk to me, for a second.” Minnie directs them, Clem nods and walks to side as Ellie makes her way to the greenhouse. 

They came to a stop and she saw that Minnie was hesitating to talk so she decided to hurry her up. “So, what do you want to talk about?” Brunette looks at Sophie walking off and Louis is standing next to the body. 

“I know it’s too much to ask, but if you could help us take back our friends.” Minnie asks and Clem doesn’t know what she should say, from one side she really wants to help them, but from another Dina is somewhere out there and Ellie won’t agree to help them unless she finds Dina. 

“Minnie, as much as I want to help you, I can’t Ellie’s girlfriend was kidnapped because of me, and I won’t be able to do it without Ellie.” Clem sighs, she really wants help the, but she just can’t and she can't see herself fighting off god knows how many raiders, even if she did similar things in the past it was still a risk she isn't sure she wants to take. 

“But some women, she didn’t tell her name, told us that they ‘recruited’ many people, and in my opinion, they kidnapped more people, maybe she’s there.” Minnie convinces and if she ain’t lying might be true, but to convince Ellie to this, it’ll be much harder. 

“That changes the situation a little… I’ll try to convince Ellie, but don’t expect anything, alright?” Clem gives Minnie a little bit of hope, and then Clem actually realizes that she’s staring at Minnie, as she stares at her, and when both notices that, they look away, blush covering both of their faces, Clem never felt something like that, she doesn’t even know Minnie well, and this defenitively wasn’t a bad emotion, it was actually pretty nice, like her chest became much warmer, but is quickly fades away, and when it does it’s more awkward than she would like it. “So, I’ll go to Ellie.” Clem says, blush still on her face. “Yeah, you do that.” Minnie agrees and both of them walks away from them trying to understand what just happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Clem walks towards the greenhouse, and she still can’t understand what happened few whiles ago, she doesn’t know what she should think about this and probably Ellie is her last rescue, or she could just completely ignore what just happened. Clem sees Ellie trying to open doors to the greenhouse, but they won’t budge. “It’s locked.” Ellie says an obvious thing, and Clem sighs, as much as she wants to as quickly as possible understand this weird feeling, she wants to get at least that shovel from the greenhouse. “What now?” Ellie asks as she looks around greenhouse looking for another entry, Clem just kicks the door to open them. “That's one way to do it.” Ellie sighs as she sees Clem’s way of getting into the greenhouse. Both of them walk in, both of them have knives in hands, as they hear growling in badly lighted greenhouse, not even a little of light can get inside because of ivy covering walls from, outside. As soon as they hear growling three infected, two runners and one clicker, get up from the floor, and charge at them, they split up. Clementine kicks one in the chest sending it to the ground and immediately stabs another runner in the chest three times and with a quick move finishes the first with a stab to the head. She takes a knife out from the head, and Ellie simply dodges clicker charging at her and stabs it in the back of the head. To Clem’s surprise, Ellie starts clapping. “They had a problem with three infected.” Ellie laughs, well it is actually kinda funny, at least for the brunette, because there were more than ten people in this place, most of them at first look in their age, and they couldn’t handle three walkers. 

“Ellie we’ll have to about something, I have a problem figuring one thing out.” Clem says as she and Ellie look around the greenhouse trying to find that shovel. 

“You really need to be desperate to ask me about something.” Ellie jokes and Clem glares at her it’s really annoying that Ellie sometimes can’t take things seriously. “But you’re not in trouble, with that girl, how she was… Uh, Minnie?” Ellie says more seriously, which surprises Clem, but she shakes her head. “Well, one thing I don’t have to care about.” Ellie continues, as Clem finds shovel. 

“Found it.” Clem exclaims and Ellie is kinda happy about it because she doesn’t have to look for shovel in the poorly lighted greenhouse anymore. As they walk out they see that Louis is dragging the body of Omar to something like a graveyard, there are some graves, but not so many, and as Louis lets go of body he starts to feel sick, turns around, walks away and starts vomiting. “Are you ok?” Clem asks and Louis waves it off, but he’s really pale. 

“Yeah, I’m alright, well maybe apart from that my friends got kidnapped, and other one got killed.” Louis tries to pull off a joke but fails miserably. “Do you need something, or I can go?” Louis asks as he feels how awkward it sounded and Clem shakes her head, to which Louis walks off. Minutes passed by as Clem dug a grave right next to the cross. 

“You think they’ll let us use some of their supplies?” Clem asks for an opinion, and Ellie nods her head as she waits for her turn to dig. 

“Well, we saved their asses, cleared out their greenhouse, digging a grave for their friend, so yeah, they probably will.” Ellie says, and Clem digs more than she should. “My turn.” Ellie tries to catch Clem’s attention but fails, Clem’s mind is occupied by many things, firstly, Dina, she let her get kidnapped, it’s her fault, then how she should tell Ellie that she wants to stay and help kids in here to take back their friends and she should stay with her, because there’s a small chance that Dina’ll be there, and lastly this weird feeling, but she gives up on the last thing. Then Clem feels tapping on her shoulder. 

“What?” Clem sounds tired, even more than she was about ten minutes ago. 

“You almost dig all grave by yourself.” Ellie explains and that’s when Clem realizes that she did just that. “Give me the shovel.” Ellie commands, Clem nods and climbs from the hole she digs. Ellie starts digging as Clem watch. “What do you want to talk about?” Ellie asks and Clem doesn’t know if she should tell her now, or later. 

“Maybe, we should stay here for the night?” Clem suggests what she thinks of first, it’s not a bad idea, and it’s something to consider. 

“Clem, I don’t know, but it’s not a bad idea, they probably have beds or at least mattresses, it’s better than sleeping on the ground.” Ellie says, and Clem didn’t think that she’ll agree. Ellie is almost done as she really doesn’t like the awkward silence between her and Clem, she looks at her, Clem’s staring somewhere and as Ellie turns her head to direction where Clem’s staring, she’s staring at Minnie, but Ellie decides not to ask at least for now. Clem stopped staring and puts the body to the grave with Ellie, but they don’t fill it. “Now what?” Ellie asks as all of the people that survived the attack are sitting at one table. 

“Well, I don’t think, they have enough strength to do funeral today, so that’s out of the question, I’ll ask them about a place to sleep, and if we could use some of their supplies.” Clem suggests and Ellie nods, both walk to the table where rest is sitting, as nobody really cares Minnie has this little hope in her eyes as she didn’t tell anyone about her favor. 

“Is it done?” Mitch asks, Clem and Ellie sit with them and nod. 

“But I’d suggest doing a funeral tomorrow, as it is bad as it already is.” Everyone agree with her. 

“So what now? Our friends are kidnapped, they have guns, we have bows, and most of us don’t really know how to use it correctly.” Mitch complains, and Clem has a temptation to say she and Ellie will help, but she doesn’t really want to say something that Ellie won’t agree to, she knows that if Clem will be sure that she’ll stay, and Ellie won’t agree with her she’ll just go alone. 

“Okay, so I presume that none of you ever tried to get some information out from someone with… Force?” Clem asks, she doesn’t really want to use word torture, but she will if she has to, no one nods. “So, I have some kind of agreement. You’ll let us sleep the night here, and let us use some of your medical supplies, in return, we’ll try to talk with that guy in the morning.” Clem suggests as she knows that Ellie doesn’t really have a reason to disagree with her. 

“Why should we? As far as we know you can kill us in our sleep.” Mitch complains again. 

“Mitch shut the fuck up. I’m pretty sure that if they would’ve wanted to kill us, we wouldn’t talk right now.” Louis says the truth and Ellie agree with him. 

“Oh, so you two just could kill four people? I don’t think so.” Mitch is really starting to act like he wants to just throw Ellie and Clem out, so Clem decides to do something about it. 

“Okay, so you think that I and her couldn’t kill four not armed people and one wounded one? I was fifteen and took out whole bandit camp by myself, so I don’t really think that even if you were in the great state you wouldn’t be able to win.” Clem explains she actually didn’t want to say so much about herself, but Mitch didn’t talk after that, nor anyone else. “So is it a deal?” Clem asks and everybody nods, well apart from Mitch that looks offended. 

“Lou, show them some empty room, oh and you probably deserve an official welcoming. Welcome to Ericson’s boarding school for troubled youth.” Minnie tries to sound excited to welcome new people in their school, but she just can’t, Louis nods at the request and starts to go with Ellie and Clem to dormitories. 

“Don’t mind Mitch, he won’t trust you from start.” Louis makes an excuse for Mitch, and Ellie just sighs. 

“We’ll be gone by tomorrow, so don’t be worried.” Ellie says out from frustration, she doesn’t even remember when Clem just shared what she did in her past just to some stranger, well maybe not stranger, but she knows Mitch for not longer than an hour. 

“Well… If you say so.” Louis says and walks towards some doors and opens them. “Make yourself at home.” Louis says and walks away. 

“Okay, that was harsh.” Clem says, and Ellie sighs again. 

“Doesn’t really matter. Not to me at least.” Ellie walks in the room and throws her bag on the ground next to bed and waits for Clem to prepare for getting care of the wound, as maybe she doesn’t have that much experience as Dina has, she still knows how to bandage and clean a wound, she’s actually surprised that Clem already has what she needs in the bag, she for sure didn’t go to ask for them or ask where they are. 

“You stole it?” Ellie asks and Clem shakes her head. 

“I’m not stupid, I patched Mitch earlier, and had everything we needed.” Clem explains and Ellie nods taking the cloth from her backpack and pouring some peroxide on it, as Clem takes off her shirt stained with blood. 

“So what was that you wanted to talk about?” Ellie asks as she slowly cleans the wound. 

“Well, I talked with Minnie, and she has a favor to ask, and I’m not going to agree to it if you won’t. She asked me if I could help them take back their friends.” Clem asks without confidence in her voice, but Ellie doesn’t really react as she expected. 

“You had to say something, so what did you say?” Ellie asks with an eager voice. 

“Well, I said that I don’t know since Dina is kidnapped, I told her that depends from your opinion, but she said the group that kidnapped their friends said that they ‘recruit’ many people, and looking that the job I was with Dina wasn’t far away from here they maybe have her too.” Clem quickly explains, Ellie still understands her, she’s already done with cleaning a wound, so she gets a bandage from the desk that is set under a window and starts bandaging Clem. 

“Fuck… I mean like… Yeah, it does sound better than nothing at all, we don’t have any trails or an actual plan for saving Dina, but what are the odds that this bastard will tell us, where their camp is?” 

Ellie asks, she wants to agree to this plan. “Well, he either tells us from his good will, or I’ll torture the bastard.” Clem blurts out, but she means it. 

“Oh yeah, and risk that you’ll have even more nightmares, it’s not smart or stupid, but if it comes to that, I’ll do it, alright?” Ellie asks, and Clem doesn’t respond, she knows that Ellie is right about nightmares, they occur every other night. 

“No.” Clem finally answers and Ellie doesn’t even argue, she knows that Clem will do it her way. 

“Okay, but I guess there’s another thing to talk about since it wasn’t about you figuring something out.” Ellie insists, and Clem kinda feels that talking about this feeling won’t be easy, as she has one suspicion about what is it. 

“So, when I was done with talking to Minnie, I just started to stare at her, but not like in a creepy way, and I think she started to stare too, and after I walked away, I felt this weird warm feeling in my chest.” Clem explains really quickly she has no idea what the feeling was, Ellie barely understands her. 

“If I’d knew that the moment I told you that someday you’d like someone I wouldn’t suspect it’d be forty-five minutes later, but yeah about that staring thing, it had to be pretty awkward, and I saw you stare at her when I was looking for a way inside that greenhouse.” Ellie says and Clem doesn’t like that one bit. 

“And what now? I’m sure as hell ain’t telling her that.” Clem rejects that thought even though she's almost sure she'll do something stupid without even thinking about it. 

“Well, yeah you know her for not even an hour, so you shouldn’t say that already, but you know wait a couple of days, then you’ll see... If we stay here that long.” Ellie says something, just to calm down Clem, but that doesn’t work. 

“You know what I think about me being with someone.” Clem complains and Ellie sighs. 

“Firstly, no one told that you have to be with her, secondly what do you think it looked when Dina was in Jackson while I roamed from there to Prescott, and on some job, then back to Jackson, if it took more than two weeks she was almost sure that I died, so yeah, you just can’t let someone be close to you because you’re afraid that you’ll hurt someone by your death, and looking at what you did, it’s almost impossible to kill you, and believe it’s sometimes worth it that someone you love actually thinks you’re dead.” Ellie tries to calm down Clem, and she’s disgusted by what Ellie said, she knows what she means, but if the thing that Minnie stared at her too is true then it’ll be much harder than she thought, then Ellie decides to change the subject as she ends to patch up Clem and throws her shirt to her. 

“Would you tell me how exactly Dina got captured? You never dared to tell me that.” Ellie asks, Clem notices the change of subject, but doesn’t question it, and puts on again her shirt with long sleeves. 

“So, it was an easy job, take the package from Prescott to some camp they marked on my map, it was the only reason why I agreed to take Dina with me, so when we got there I checked how it looks, those guys looked sketchy, so I told Dina that she’ll stay in a safe distance, and I’ll go to give them that package, she agreed they told that their group is called ‘Delta’ if I’m not mistaken, when I came back she wasn’t there, I checked the whole area, no even a trail of her.” Clem explains as she lies down on her bed, she usually plays on guitar before she goes to sleep, but she’s too tired to do that right now, Ellie lies down too. “So, I guess that if that guy will tell us where their camp is we’ll help them?” Clem asks for confirmation. 

“Only if Dina will be there, without her I don’t really have a reason to help them.” Ellie answers, Clem doesn’t really like her answer, but she kinda agrees with her, if Dina won’t be there, they’ll just have to keep going and maybe Clem will be able to forget about Minnie, about five minutes after they lied down, Clem already hears Ellie’s quiet snoring, she can’t sleep, her mind is thinking what Ellie will do if they don’t find Dina, or if they’ll find her dead, she doesn’t think Ellie would survive that, every time she came back in bad shape, or she didn’t want to talk Dina always found a way to get to her, but that thought dies when tiredness catches up to her, making her sleep. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I think that I should say that in this chapter is death of a child so if you're not comfortable with this search this phrase -END OF NIGHTMARE-

Clem is in front of entry to McCarroll ranch, looking for AJ, she isn’t sure if he’ll be there, but if there’s a slight chance that he might be there she needs to take, and everything would go smoothly if not sudden shots and fire from inside of ranch, Clem’s horse is starting to panic, but Clem calms him down. She makes her way closer to the entry and some man suddenly starts to shoot hitting horse, which falls down right on Clem’s leg, not even paying attention to pain in her leg she starts to shoot towards man hitting his throat, he drops his weapon and sits down, leans on a fragment of wood, Clem walks towards him still aiming towards him, but not shooting. “Where are the children?” Clem asks, her voice is filled with rage, she worked hard for that horse, and two bullets were enough to make it go to waste. “Fuck you.” Man says with a quiet voice, he can’t speak louder because of his wound, he coughs with blood, Clem knows that this man won’t survive, and if he won’t be finished off he’ll die in pain, so she shows mercy and shoots him between his eyes. She finally walks to entry and hears terrifying screams from inside, but she doesn’t pay much mind into them, as someone grabs her by her ankle, she thinks it’s walker, but it’s man, that’s burned, his face burned, his lower part of the body is pinned down by glowing wood. “Ple-please, shoot me.” Man begs, coughing from the amount of smoke in his lungs, and Clem fulfills his wish. Going through some kind of corridor she sees that man from New Frontier, or Old Frontier as she heard how people call those that runned away when Javi took over New Frontier, are falling back, she decides not to chose that corridor from two reasons, one is that she’ll probably get hit by stray bullet, and second is that she hears some kid’s cries from behind door. Clem slowly walks towards door and opens it there’s a couple of beds, but they doesn’t look like beds for children, there are another set of door from there she hears the cries that are getting louder and louder as she walks towards them, opens them and sees some women holding kid, but Clem recognizes that kid it’s her goofball, she holds AJ on one hand trying to calm him down, other hand holds a pistol, and women are crying too, Clem immediately aims for her, but don’t shoot, women notices her. “Give me him.” Clem says, she’s ready to do anything to get AJ back. “No point in that… You won’t be able to raise him, not by yourself, not in this world.” Women says, she probably heard about Clem from Joan, she was quite a trouble in New Frontier when Joan was still leading it with two other people. “What do you mean?” Clem asks her grip on pistol becomes tighter, and before she could even blink a shot rang through the room, crying stopped, there’s smoke coming from women’s pistol, and as Clem would notice if she would shoot to her, it only means one thing, AJ was the target, he got shot by that women, and Clem can’t believe it, she shot a kid with no reason. “No, no, no!” Clem screams as she starts shooting women, firstly in the thigh, then one shoulder, abdomen, and neck, but not killing her, she won’t die quick but then as Clem’s rage passes she just sees as AJ lying on the ground, he's in so much pain and he's still alive, tears still wet on his cheeks, his eyes red from crying, and bullet wound that goes through his ribs coming out in the area of the shoulder on the other side of the body, he won’t be alive, he’s lungs were probably hit by a bullet, but yet he's still alive but he'll die. “I should die, not you.” Clem cries over his body, she knows what she has to do, but she really doesn’t want to, but in her opinion, she prefers to prevent AJ from any further pain, she stands up pulls out her pistol aims for his head and pulls the trigger.  
-END OF NIGHTMARE-  


Clem’s eyes shoot open, she’s all in cold sweat, she screams as she wakes up from nightmare, it’s the worst one, and the most frequent one, she has it almost always, the second in that is when she had to shoot Lee. She wants to cry, but she doesn’t she’s sure that it’ll wake Ellie up so she quickly reaches for her bag and starts drinking water, almost emptying the bottle, she doesn’t feel like she’ll fall asleep not now, she never could sleep after that nightmare, so she decides that she’ll go outside for some fresh air, just to breathe, and she likes weather that’s outside right now, mist and cold it would be great if not most things are wet, she grips her jacket still with cuts from knife and puts it on, she walks out to courtyard as quickly as she possibly can without waking anybody, as everybody should be asleep by now, it’s late she’s sure of that, she opens the door and breathes deeply, just that makes her feel a little bit better, but it’s still not enough to stop thinking about that nightmare, she likes to think that if she can’t see anybody, nobody can see her, she knows it’s stupid, and she also knows that’s not true, but she likes to think about it that way, but tonight is different, she doesn’t feel so alone as always, even at Prescott she felt more lonely as the only one that wasn’t asleep there was guards on walls as well as some guards in the city making sure that no one is doing anything that could be trouble, then she sees Minnie sitting at bench looking towards stars, she didn’t notice Clem. She walks towards her catching her attention, but not she still isn’t looking at her. “You can’t sleep too?” Minnie asks, and Clem shakes her head. “No, I was sleeping, but nightmare woke me up.” Clem explains and sits on bench opposite to one that Minnie is sitting on. “I kinda know how it is, my brother had nightmares, they kinda disappeared now, he got better when he talked about them.” Minnie tries to get Clem to say about what her nightmare was, Clem sighs. “I don’t really want to talk about it, it’s still touchy subject.” Clem explains and Minnie nods in understatement. “Do you even see anything through fog?” Clem asks and Minnie shakes her head. “Nope, there’s one place that’s probably higher then the mist, but I don’t like going there alone.” Minnie admits. “So get up, we can go up there, I won’t be able to fall asleep that quickly.” Clem suggests and Minnie looks at her asking if she’s sure and Clem nods. Minnie leads Clem towards some bell tower, and Clem isn’t happy when she finds out there’s no stairs and that you need to climb to get on top. “So, it’s safe?” Clem asks as Minnie starts to climb. “As safe as it can be.” Minnie answers and Clem starts to climb too, she isn’t afraid she liked to climb on some buildings at night in Prescott when she was there, and wasn’t in the mood to talk with anybody. Clem is right at the end and now she just have to jump towards some wood and pull herself up to be on the roof, she does just that, but her fingers almost slipped when she pulled herself up. As Clem stands up she sees that Minnie is already laying on the roof stargazing. “So what now?” Clem asks, and Minnie shrugs. “Lay down and stargaze, I remind you that it was your idea.” Minnie says, and Clem lies down next to her and looks at the stars, fog is a little bit lower than them. “You talked to Ellie?” Minnie says and Clem nods, even if Minnie won’t be able to see that. “Yeah, and we’ll help you only if her girlfriend is there.” Clem explains and Minnie nods too. “So finger crossed she’s there.” Minnie jokes, but Clem doesn’t laugh or even chuckle. “Was this group by any chance called Delta?” Clem asks with serious tone, and Minnie starts to think. “Yeah, I think I heard that woman said that their community is called Delta.” Minnie answers and Clem isn’t happy about that answer. “Why?” Minnie asks. “Asking from curiosity.” Clem waves it off and thinks about changing the subject. “So with who did you walk up here?” Clem asks and just now she realizes how bad idea was coming up here, it’s cold, too cold for her liking, she actually shivers from cold. “With my ex-girlfriend, but I don’t know if she actually believes that we won’t be together again.” Minnie says and Clem curiosity got better of her. “Why?” Clem asks and kicks herself mentally for asking that. “Well, we broke up by now about eleven times, and everytime we were together about week later, but I realized how stupid it is to try and actually believe that it could work out.” Minnie confesses and Clem doesn’t say anything. “Have you ever had someone?” Minnie asks, she thinks that Clem had to or actually have someone. “Nope.” Clem answers and Minnie looks at her, but doesn’t see that Clem is shivering. “Why?” Minnie asks again, Clem knew that she’ll ask that. “Because I don’t want to hurt anyone by my death, but Ellie almost always says that I might be better if I’ll at least try to be with someone… And the worst thing is that I actually start to think she might be right.” Clem answers. “Okay, change of the subject, let’s suppose that Ellie’s girlfriend will be in their camp, and the one that we captured will say us where is it, and somehow we’ll manage to take them all back, what do you plan on doing next?” Minnie asks and Clem starts to think about it. “Well, when I think about it, I won’t be coming back to Prescott, they’ll send me to some other stupid shit, with high chances for my death, so yeah, fuck that. If me and Ellie will find Dina, then Ellie and her will for sure come back to Jackson, so I’ll probably tag along, and maybe stay there.” Clem explains and Minnie sighs. “I wouldn’t mind if you’d stay here, I mean like, if you fight so well as you say you do, than you’re more experienced in fighting than every member of this school including those that are kidnapped.” Minnie says and Clem doesn’t know what to say. “I’m not that good.” Clem tries to argue about what Minnie said. “Well, I might as well ask Ellie about it.” Minnie tease. “Okay, I’m good, but not invincible, though Ellie said that nothing can kill me.” Clem confesses and Minnie chuckles. “I would say my opinion about this, but I never saw you fight.” Minnie says and Clem smiles. They lie there ten minutes, then this changes to thirty minutes and exhaustion catches up to Minne first and she fall asleep on bell tower, Clem is still shivering from cold, but exhaustion catches up to her too, she doesn’t know if she should go back to bed, or stay on bell tower, when she thinks about it, she doesn’t want to risk falling down from top because of trying to climb down when she’s exhausted, so she closes her eyes again, and falls asleep next to Minnie.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it may seem that relationship between Clem and Minnie is a little bit rushed, but in original version that I wrote about one month ago they end up together two weeks after they meet, and for those two weeks kidnapped kids from school are in Delta, so they should get brainwashed, but I completely forgot about that then, and now they'll save them much faster, and if Clem wouldn't have a reason to stay she'd go with Ellie.

Clem’s eyes flutter open and she wants to stand up immediately when she sees that sun is up, but it’s still early, she doesn’t know why, but she always have to get up early, she doesn’t remember if Ellie ever had woken up before her. Clem fells something warm next to her, but she ignores it and starts standing up and then she realizes that someone holds her by waist, then she notices that the hand that’s holding her is Minnie’s, and just like that, she doesn’t want to get up anymore, she’s lucky that Minnie didn’t wake up. Clem pushes herself up just to see Minnie’s face, she just admires it, how she looks, then she starts staring at Minnie’s lips, how soft they look, how much she would want to kiss her, how close Minnie’s face is to hers, and then something snaps inside of her, before she could even think about this she kisses her, but as soon as she touches her lips with her own, Minnie’s eyes flutter open, and the first thing they see is Clem right in front of her, as she kisses her. ‘O fuck.’ Clem thinks and pulls away and looks other way, just to not look at Minnie, so she doesn’t have to see how Minnie looks at her with disgust, hate, what are the odds that Minnie likes her back? “Clem.” Minnie says, but Clem doesn’t react she’s too stressed to do anything. “Clem, look at me.” Minnie commands, but she doesn’t sound mad and Clem reluctantly listens to her. “Why did you kiss me?” Minnie asks and Clem takes deep breath, she didn’t even notice that Minnie’s hand didn’t let go of her waist. “Do you remember when I told you that I Ellie might be right that I could feel better if I had someone?” Clem asks, and Minnie nods, with two meanings of it, firstly, to confirm what she asked about, and to say that she can continue. “So it wasn’t exactly true, I never had romantic feelings towards someone, but when I met you it… Just changed? I know it sounds weird, ‘cause we know each other for about twelve hours? I like you, like more than a friend.” Clem says so quickly Minnie can barely understand her, she doesn’t know what to say, but she knows what she can do to show that she feels the same way, even though she knows it is kinda weird, because they know each other shorter than twelve hours, Minnie uses advantage of her hand still wrapped around Clem’s waist and pulls her closer to make their lips connect again, after they pull away from each other, Clem is confused as hell, but she’s blushing even more. “What?” It’s the only thing that Clem can say, as Minnie giggles, as soon as Clem hears that she fall in love with that sound. “I like you too, I don’t care if we know each other for not a long time.” Minnie says and Clem smiles and lies back down on Minnie’s chest. “So how do you feel right now? Was Ellie right?” Minnie teases, but Clem takes it seriously. “Even more than I could imagine.” Clem says and Minnie smiles. They lay there for about ten minutes, as they enjoy each other company, as Clem was just happy that she admitted her feelings even if it were quite obvious what they were when Minnie woke up, but Minnie thinks how not to end like her and Violet, and she knows that she can do something about it. “Clem.” Minnie calls out. “Hmm?” “So what are we now?” Minnie asks, she just wants to point this conversation to right direction. “I don’t know. We know each other not that long.” Clem answers, not answer Minnie wanted to hear. “Well in my opinion, maybe we could be together.” Minnie suggests, she’s surprised when she hears the little bit of shyness in her voice. “Well, I mean we could, but we should get to know each other better.” Clem says exactly what Minnie wanted to say, one of the reasons she broke up with Violet was secrets from her, as Minnie was always opened like a book, Violet always didn’t want to share anything with anybody. “Yeah… But I think it’s not right time.” Minnie says, and hears Clem sigh, and not in a good way. “I don’t like talking about my past.” Clem says, Minnie can hear a little bit of stress in her voice. “We don’t have to do it today, nor in a week, but we should as soon as possible.” Minnie calms her down, Clem wants to say something back, but can hear a door opening from the building where the dorms are. “Clem, you’re here!?” Ellie calls out for younger girl, and Clem sighs she wanted to stay cuddled to Minnie a little bit longer. “I guess it’s our cue.” Clem says and gets up, even if Minnie doesn’t like it. “Okay, so now we need to get down without breaking our necks.” Minnie tries to pull of a joke, but Clem doesn’t laugh, she did almost die while climbing here earlier. “Well, I almost did earlier.” Clem admits and Minnie’s smile faded away. “Okay, so you’re going first.” Minnie says and Clem nods, she doesn’t know why, but she goes first. The climb down, wasn’t as hard as climbing up, maybe because Clem knows how to climb it perfectly. When Clem climbs down, and Minnie right behind her, both of them sees Ellie running from place to place, probably looking for Clem. “I’m here.” Clem stops Ellie, as she seems a little bit relieved, but then she starts thinking, why Clem was climbing down with Minnie. “Did something happened between you two?” Ellie asks, and Minnie blushes, but Clem learned how to hide her feeling when she needs it. “Later, El. Now we have that guy to interrogate.” Clem says and Ellie just smiles and nods, and Clem isn’t to happy when she sees that smirk. “Is the rest woken up?” Minnie asks and Ellie shrugs. “I don’t know, but I saw Sophie walking through corridors, she was looking for you.” Ellie says, and as on cue everyone that wasn’t outside walks out from dorms, they didn’t even had anyone on the lookout, no one would be able not to sleep another night, but before they gone to sleep everyone checked if everything was looking as good as it could, and they make sure that the gates were closed. “There you are.” Sophie exclaims as she sees her sister, but everyone mood is going down when they look to place where graves are, and that they need to bury Omar. “Do you need help? We can wait these additional ten minutes.” Clem asks and no one answers, but she just need to be at this funeral, just in case. “Clem, we have work to do.” Ellie argues, but the look that Clem gave her made her shut up. Everyone gathers up near the grave, she thought there would say something, or something like that, but they just sit there, everyone looks pissed as hell, actually only Sophie sobs, Clem already knows who is the more fragile twin, she doesn’t mean it in a bad way, but still if Clem recalls correctly she saw only her cry, apart from Mitch who cried when Clem patched him up. “How could we let them kill him?” Louis says, and Ellie wants to say that he isn’t making things better, but she isn’t telling anything. “You couldn’t do anything, if you didn’t expect an attack, and the one attacking are better equipped, it’s not easy to win that fight.” Clem says from experience, Louis steps up, he’s going to say something. “Omar was our friend, and probably the best cook we could ever found, but we let some bastards kill him, but if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll be able to prevent that from happening to our other friends, but first we must bury the one that died, but we’ll make sure that his death won’t go in vein.” Louis says, and Clem and Ellie knows that no one can be protected from death by work of other people, but they don’t say anything, Louis takes shovel and starts to bury Omar, it’s going a lot faster than last night since most of people are rested, at least as much as they can, but still not that fast as Clem when she was lost in her thoughts. “Okay, so I talked about this with Mitch, and Sophie, we have a huge favor to ask both of you.” Louis says, when he ends burying Omar, only Mitch is standing beside him as Sophie still mourns Omar, and Minnie stays with her, well everybody from school still mourns him, but Sophie was the one that stayed at the grave. “Let me guess. You want us to help you find your friends?” Ellie states the obvious, Clem knew that they’ll ask that. “Well, yeah... “ Louis admits and Ellie frowns. “Only if that bastard will tell us where are his friends, and if Dina will be there, understood?” Ellie says and boys nod. “You’re even more pissed than yesterday.” Clem catches attention of Ellie. “When I only think what they could do to Dina… Clem. Listen to me carefully if they done anything to her, I’ll kill every soldier, all people from Delta.” Ellie exclaims and Clem is actually surprised for her to say that, usually Clem was the one that threatened with death to people who hurt, or killed her friends. “If they did, I’ll gladly help you do that.” Clem reassures and Ellie nods, both of them walks to cellar and the man Clem knocked out yesterday, is still unconscious, Clem is the one that’ll interrogate man, as Clem and Ellie knows that the taller girl might not hold out and kill man as soon as he’ll tell something stupid. “Try not to kill him.” Ellie warns and Clem nods, she hits man with all force she could master, and wake him up. He wince and spits out the blood. “That’s not a way to wake up, an old man from his nap.” Man says and Clem rolls her eyes. “So, I’m going to ask once, where’s your camp?” Clem asks, trying to fake a nice and calm voice, but inside she wants to just kill this man, and look for camp on her own. “How about a please?” Man tries to joke, and Clem slams his head against a desk, he winces in pain. “Where’s. Your. Camp.” Clem repeats herself slowly. “I can tell you actually, you two won’t be able to even get inside there.” Man says and Clem smirks. “If you’re so sure then tell us, we’ll see how it’ll go.” Clem commands and Man chuckles. “Nope.” Man says and Clem pulls out a knife, man tied down to school chair connected with desk doesn’t seem really impressed, but it change when Clem stabs him in the knee, not realising it, man screams in pain, and Clem twists knife a little, gaining even more screams. “I’ll stop when you’ll tell us where is it.” Clem informs, and Ellie wants to stop Clem from torturing man, but she knows that it can be a chance to find Dina. “Fuck! By the river! Boat by the river… You won’t be able to do anything there.” Man answers Clem’s question, and Clem smirks at his remark, pulling out knife from his knee, and walking towards Ellie. “What now? We can’t leave him here, and we can’t let him go.” Clem whispers, even if man can’t walk people from Delta, are probably looking for him and the other two in forests, it’s only a matter of time when they’ll go back to the school. “We could kill him.” Ellie whispers back, she doesn’t mind killing a man that’s kidnapping kids. “Okay.” Clem agrees and turns to the man, to see him unconscious, from loss of blood. “Shit.” Ellie says nad Clem with sighs, man suddenly wakes up, laughing which startles Ellie and Clem a little. “There’s this new girl… Most of boys had fun with her already, her name was something on D, if I remember correctly.” Man says, neither Clem, or Ellie knows why he told them that, but Clem already sees rage on Ellie’s face, she without words comes up to the man and starts hitting him, punch after punch on his face, Clem doesn’t want to interrupt her, if it was Dina he was talking about he deserved it, and even if it wasn’t Dina he deserved for being part of community that kidnaps people. Soon after Ellie’s fists were covered with blood and man wasn’t moving, but Ellie didn’t stop, only about ten second later she stopped and spit at him, she was heavily breathing, probably from rage or fatigue of landing so many punches, and then Clem hears sniffing and some quiet sobs. “Ellie… Are you alright?” Clem asks, she kicks heself mentally for asking that, but she wants to be sure if Ellie is alright, it’s first time she saw her in that state. “No I’m fucking not.” Ellie says with weak voice, she turns to Clem, and it Ellie is crying, she tries to hide it, but it can’t be, she just heard that her girlfriend was probably used by man in Delta, it’s not a thing you hear everyday. “Ellie, I’m sure they didn’t do anything to her, we don’t even know if she’s there.” Clem tries to cheer Ellie up, but to no avail. “Okay, we’ll go check right now, go for your gear, we’re going there.” Clem exclaims and Ellie nods and walks out, but before she done that she made sure that she didn’t look like she was just crying. Clem checks if the man is alive, he isn’t, Ellie beat him to death, but he brought it on himself, but she still makes sure that he won’t turn.


	6. Chapter 6

Clem walks out from cellar, Ellie is probably in their room taking what they need, and preparing herself mentally if her suspicions will be correct, Clem can’t even imagine what Ellie must be feeling like, and what Dina must feel if it’s her that man was talking about. Clem sees Minnie talking with Sophie and when they see her they walk up to her. “So?” Sophie asks with hope in her eyes, even more than the amount she seen in Minnie’s eyes when she told her she’ll talk about Ellie if they will help them or not. “We know where their camp is, so from now on it’s only hoping that Dina is there. And you should send someone for body, don’t pay attention to his face… He said what he shouldn’t have.” Clem tries to explain without saying what he said. “Yeah, we saw Ellie’s hands.” Minnie says and Sophie nods. “So when you’re going to check out their camp?” Minnie asks and Clem smiles. “Well, as soon as Ellie comes back with our gear, when we come back, and Dina will be there, we’ll tell you what we learned.” Clem explains and she expected some kind of reaction from siblings, but gain none. “I thought you two will be happy.” Clem says and Twins just shrug. “Well, what are the odds that Dina is there?” Sophie says and Minnie nods, Clem starts thinking, she gave them so much hope and one thing could destroy it all. “Well, maybe I’ll manage to convince Ellie to help you even if she’s isn’t there, I would’ve stayed here and help you if she wouldn’t do that, but I don’t want her to die, while doing something stupid.” Clem says and twins nods, Clem doesn’t know why, but Sophie walks off, but that is kinda giving Minnie and Clem a little while for themselves. “You meant it?” Clem asks suddenly and Minnie shakes her head in confusion. “What I meant?” Minnie asks and Clem sighs. “On bell tower?” Clem corrects herself, she doesn’t know why, but she has a feeling that Minnie didn’t meant what she told. “I meant it.” Minnie reassures and Clem shrugs. “I’m sorry.” Clem says and Minnie smiles. “For? I’m not surprised, it’s your first relationship, if you didn’t lie to me about that, and you don’t really know me, so that’s another thing.” Minnie says and Clem shrugs again. “Okay, if we want to do anything right now, then hurry up, Ellie will be here in a minute or so.” Minnie says and Clem smiles. “What do you have in mind?” Clem asks as Minnie leans as Clem lays her arms behind Minnie’s neck, and before they could do anything more, they hear door being open, and before they knew it, they were standing as if nothing happened, apart from blush on their faces, they’re actually surprised that no one else no courtyard noticed them. “We’re ready?” Ellie asks, not realising blushes on face of Minnie and Clem. “Yeah, we can go.” Clem agrees and sees that Ellie took binoculars and map, but didn’t took rifles, they don’t need them now, and besides they always have a pistol and knife with them. Ellie and Clem walked out from school pretty easily if not Louis trying to get to know what they learned from man lying dead in cellar, but Minnie took care of talking to Louis, as Clem didn’t want to slow her and Ellie down. They walk through woods without much of a issue apart from occasional walker or two that don’t stand much of a chance, they don’t talk, they don’t really want to. “It’s here.” Ellie tells out of a sudden, breaking the silence and crouching, to not get seen from some kind of a boat, that actually looks like it can sail. Clem takes binoculars and checks the boat, and she sees lot of guards, she dealt with more a couple of times, but never when they had an advantage, but there’s no sign of Dina. “We ain’t doing that by shooting our way in.” Clem states the obvious even if she knows that Ellie probably would try to do that. “Is she there?” Ellie asks not caring for finding a way to camp first. “I don’t see her, but she might as well be inside the boat.” Clem says and Ellie sighs. “Let’s stay here for a while, go check out terrain, maybe we’ll be able to catch another one of them and ask about Dina.” Clem suggests and Ellie agrees to that plan, they still ain’t sure if Dina is there, so they can’t give up just yet. They walk around for about ten minutes checking the terrain, they spotted couple of horses tied to some wooden structure and a raft with supplies on it, some medicine, some chemicals, food and ammo. but what caught their attention last was a sound of someone chopping wood, and there are two options, the first one is that somebody is that stupid that he chops wood right next to raiders that kidnaps people, or someone from Delta chops, Ellie and Clem are sure it’s a second option. Ellie and Clem sneak towards the source of the sound and see two people, man with orange henley, jeans and machete on his back, and a woman with black hair tucked back into bun, Clem takes out her knife and waits for opportunity to sneak up on them. “You always have to play it off with a smirk don’t you?” Man says as woman chops wood, and it’s seeable that she has trouble to do it, she pants for air as if she done it whole day. “Yeah, I have to. She gets on my nerves, besides, if I won’t play it off with a smirk she’ll get to my head sooner or later.” Woman answers and man sighs. “You’re lucky, I’m letting you run away with me, what will you do when you’ll be free of Delta?” Man asks and woman wipes sweat from her forehead. “I’ll return to Jackson, my girlfriend is probably looking for me, so maybe I’ll stumble upon her.” Woman answers, and both Clem and Ellie can’t believe it’s a coincidence, but still they ain’t sure, so Ellie starts to aims for men’s head, just in case he’ll try something funny, while Clem sneaks closer to woman and puts a knife on her throat. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.” Clem threatens and man tries to each for his rifle, but Ellie walks up closer and he raises his hands. “Clem?” Woman asks, she recognizes the voice and Clem lets go of woman, but still on high alert, woman turns to Clem and Ellie, and Ellie immediately recognizes her. “Dina?” Ellie asks and Dina nods, Ellie hugs her, not caring if man will try something stupid, she only cares about that she found Dina. “Where did you get that hat?” Man asks Clem, not reaching for his rifle, and Clem turns to him. “Why do you care?” Clem answers with question and man decides that he’ll try something else. “Four or five years ago, girl with the same hat pulled me out from a lake, when my leg was shot by some russians. Does this say something to you?” Man asks and Clem’s eyes widen at realization. “Luke?” Clem asks and man nods, and she hugs him. “I missed you so much.” Clem says, as Luke reappreciate hug, Clem lets go of him and look at Ellie, and she’s still hugging Dina, but then she realizes something. “Did they hurt you?” Ellie asks her voice is shaky a little, but it’s barely recognizable. “What do you mean?” Dina asks, she’s confused as hell, but Ellie looks at her, wants to ask it directly, but can’t, and Clem sees that. “Well, how to say it… We ‘interrogated’ one of Delta man, and he told that boys had ‘fun’ with girl and hers name was starting w D, so we kinda assumed... “ Clem’s voice trail off, and Dina starts laughing as well as Luke. “Not in this outpost, well I’m not saying that I like they methods, but no one here would get raped, Lilly would kill a bastard that would do that, but it could happen at their main base.” Luke exclaims and Ellie is calmed down. “Wait, you two are with them?” Clem asks, and just in case she places her hand on pistol, even if she’s sure that she won’t use it, she wants to be safe, Ellie doesn’t budge, but looks at Dina in suspicious way. “Kinda sorta… But we have a plan to run away this night.” Dina explains, Ellie and Clem waits for Luke’s response. “I’m here on New Frontier orders, Javier Garcia leads this community, they’re in war with Delta, and I’m a spy, since Delta never saw me with New Frontier they don’t even suspect that I’m spying on them, but this plan is far from perfect, it’s not even good, we’ll need a lot of luck to get away.” Luke explains and Ellie immediately doesn’t like that idea. “Well, we’re to save kids from school, well at least Clem is, I was looking for Dina.” Ellie says, and gets attention of Luke. “We could help you get out.” Clem suggests and Luke pulls out a map of boat, it’s handmade, but it’s really detailed. “So this is where we keep prisoners, they already try to convince them to join Delta, they’re resistant, but their leader, Marlon if I’m not mistaken, tries to make them to join, he was the one that wanted to sold some people to us, but he didn’t come to the meeting, they looked for him, if he did fall in trouble, but he just didn’t come, so Delta attacked their school, me and Dina weren’t there, but we know some of it from people that did.” Luke says and points at room on the map. “Okay, but how do we get in?” Ellie asks and apart from main entrance, Luke points on the other entrance. “This one, we only use it to transport supplies, or people, it’ll be open in night, guards won’t be outside it, but inside room you’ll come in they’ll be, me and Dina will wait for you there, there are guns, ammo, food, bottled water, and some explosives, but we ain’t using explosives.” Luke says, Clem and Ellie nods. “If we’ll have enough time to study, the plans, we might be able to pull of some plan without shooting a single bullet, Luke if it’ll go by plan you can go with us.” Clem suggests, and Luke smiles, but shakes his head. “No, I need to meet with Javi, he and couple of his people will be nearby tomorrow, so I’ll make a camp there and wait for him, but after I’ll be done with it, maybe I’ll join to you.” Luke answers and Clem nods. “So, after that we could steal their horses, it’ll be easier and faster to come back to Jackson.” Ellie says and Clem nods, even if she ain’t sure if she’ll come back with Ellie and Dina. “Okay… We do it, this night, as I said, we’ll wait for you inside, but try to be quiet, there’s too much of them to just shoot our way through.” Luke says and Clem smiles. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, as I said, if we only had enough time to study those maps, we could make some plan, or just get to know where we could set up some trap and kill as many of them, but if we do that we’re risking prisoners lives, as well as yours, so that’s out of question.” Clem rejects option to confront Delta, and everyone agrees with her. “We could just rescue those kids, and run away.” Dina suggests, but Luke shakes his head immediately. “No, they’ll notice us, too big group, but even if we escape they’ll hunt us down, and if we kill them without making too much noise then they’ll send reinforcements from Delta and will do the same if we won’t kill them.” Luke says and sighs. “Dead end, but I think that Dina’s plan is the best, if we’ll be able to lure Delta out on terrain they don’t know as well it’ll be best, but if we’ll be able to run away without them noticing, it’s going to be perfect.” Clem says and Ellie agrees with her as well as Dina, but Luke is a little reluctant about it, but agrees, because he don’t see any other way. “Okay, so this night we’ll come here, and try to get you out.” Clem says and gets up, Luke agreed for her to take maps, Ellie in the meanwhile hugs Dina again and walks away with Clem towards school.


	7. Chapter 7

As Clem and Ellie walks to school, Clem can notice the smirk on the Ellie’s face. “Okay, what is it?” Clem asks from curiosity and Ellie shrugs. “Firstly, I found Dina, and secondly I try to understand what happened on that bell tower between you and Minnie.” Ellie teases and Clem blushes, and this time it didn’t go unnoticed. “So something did happen. Tell me.” Ellie insists and Clem sighs. “Nope, not telling.” Clem shakes her head, and Ellie smiles again. “If that’s the case I’ll just send Dina after you, and you should know that she won’t stop unless you tell her.” Ellie threatens, Clem knows that Dina won’t stop bugging her about this no matter what, so she sighs in defeat “So I had another nightmare last night, and I came out on courtyard for fresh air, and saw Minnie staring at stars, I asked her if she even sees anything through fog, and she said that she didn’t, then she told me that there’s only one place that we would be able to see anything, bell tower, so we climbed there and stargazed, not long after we falled asleep, and when I woke up I was cuddled to her, and I didn’t want to get up, but I took opportunity and just took a closer look on her face, then something broke inside me, and I kissed her for no damned reason, and as you may guess, because you know my luck, she woke up, I shifted myself and turned the other way, and she said to look at her, and I did, then I told her about my feelings and she kissed my, you interrupted us when you came out from dorms.” Clem explains and Ellie smiles, she knew that if Clem would stay in school it could end up that day, but she didn’t thought it would happen not entire day after Clem met Minnie. “So, you’re together?” Ellie asks just to keep the conversation up. “I don’t actually know, we didn’t talk about it, but we decided that we should firstly get to know better.” Clem admits. “But I’ll tell her that we could work that out when we’ll rescue Dina and the rest from Delta, ain’t risking that I’ll die there, and I’ll promise her that I’ll be with her.” Clem says and Ellie sighs, she can’t stand that no matter what Clem does and it involves something that could kill her, she’s immediately convinced she’s going to die. “Stop it.” Ellie stops Clem from talking further about how can she die. “You ain’t going to die, not by some assholes that just kidnap kids, I won’t let that happen.” Ellie says with a reassuring tone, but Clem had seen too much for that to help her. “No that you’ll be able to stop a bullet.” Clem retorts, and goes a little faster just to get that far she won’t have to talk with Ellie, she doesn’t really like talking about it. They go for about ten minutes more until they see school, they didn’t talk at all during the rest of walk, and Ellie doesn’t know what she can do to change Clem’s attitude, if Ellie should be honest she had a similar talk with Joel, but not to that extend, but when she thinks about it she wasn’t bleeding out in a shed with broken leg when she was thirteen, Clem did, actually if not Ellie Clem would be dead, but Clem didn’t know her then and when she came in the shed to check out what was going on inside, Clem attacked her and almost win if not a huge wound on her abdomen and a broken arm, well it would be harder for Clem if not a shock that Ellie was in when she was suddenly attacked. They walk inside a courtyard and Sophie is actually cooking something, but as soon as all see Clem and Ellie in courtyard they forget about their responsibilities and run to them. “So?” Minnie asks and Clem smiles, in Ellie’s opinion it was quite too fast for her to smile. “Well, Dina is there, and my old friend is there too.” Clem answers and everyone is feeling suddenly better. “So now we only wait for you to do it?” Sophie asks and Clem nods. “Yep, we’re doing this tonight.” Clem exclaims, Ellie and Clem can only see smiles on faces of kids. They talk for another minute or so, when Sophie reminds herself that she was cooking and runned away, Mitch leaved right after as well as Louis and Ellie leaving Clem and Minnie alone, but what happened surprised Minnie, Clem didn’t say anything to her just walked right away, and when Minnie asked for a reason she told her she needs to study map of the boat, not leaving her much choice, to just let her go to her room. Minnie doesn’t know what she should as Louis is on watch, Sophie is cooking, Mitch is bored too, but he just carves another knifes or spear heads for fishing, so she decides to go to Ellie, with hope that she could at least try to understand why Clem seemed out of her usual relaxed attitude, well Minnie doesn’t know Clem good, she even barely knows her, but she just can feel that something is wrong. “Ellie, do you maybe know why Clem seems so… Different?” Minnie asks and Ellie nods. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t understand that, but since I met her she’s away scared of any chance of ending up dead, but with her experience she knows how not to get herself killed, but don’t understand me wrong, she isn’t scared that she’ll die, it’s about that she’s scared that she’ll hurt someone else by her death, I did try to change her mind, but never succeeded, it was one of the reason why she never tried to be with someone.” Ellie explains and Minnie nods slowly as she processes the information she just got, she doesn’t know what to say. “So she won’t really want to talk with you until we’ll come back from the Delta’s camp.” Ellie ends and Minnie nods again, and walks off, but she won’t give up that easily, she still wants to try and talk to Clem, and Ellie sees that Minnie is going inside dorm, she know also what she tries to do and, Ellie sees only two ways how it can end, first one is that Clem will throw out Minnie immediately, or she’ll actually open up. Minnie walks through corridors of dorms, she don’t actually know which room is Ellie’s and Clem’s, but acoustic sounds of guitar, she knows that from all kids from school only Marlon knows how to play guitar, but they don’t have one, so she guesses that Clem is the one playing, and the song is slow and calm, she likes it, she slowly hums to music as she get closer and closer to the room from which music is coming out, and she knocks on the door. “Come in.” Clem says from inside with a weak voice, not stopping to play on guitar, Minnie opens door, and it looks like Clem wasn’t lying, there is some map on desk right under a window, but Clem herself is sitting on bed, but she stops playing when she sees Minnie she immediately stops playing, and Minnie is kinda disappointed she stopped she liked it. “Do you need anything?” Clem asks, her voice is cold, Minnie starts to believe Ellie more and more. “No? I thought maybe we could do something that don’t involve fighting for survival at least for a little bit, well, I mean, you did play a guitar, but you stopped.” Minnie says as she sits down next to Clem and throws her arm around Clem’s shoulders, and she can feel that she tensed up under her touch, which does kinda surprise her, she didn’t have a trouble to cuddle to her in the morning. “I’m sorry if you didn’t like it.” Clem apologies, her voice is shaky and uncertain, and Minnie closes space between them making Clem even more tensed. “I actually liked it. Is something wrong?” Minnie asks and Clem shakes her head, but Minnie doesn’t believe her one bit. “Come on, you didn’t had a trouble to cuddle to me in the morning, but now you’re tensed like someone is shooting at you.” Minnie exclaims and Clem takes a deep breath. “If I shall be honest with you, I’m much less stressed when someone is shooting at me, but yeah it was a part of my life for almost three years by now.” Clem admits and Minnie is surprised by this, she doesn’t even know why, but she just can’t imagine a thirteen year old girl fighting with raiders, but well, life outside walls is different from the one inside, but Minnie still understands that. “Is there anything that stresses you more?” Minnie asks and Clem shakes her head. “You liked me playing on guitar?” Clem asks, Minnie thinks she changes a topic, but she’s wrong. “Yeah, I did, Marlon, our leader, played one too, and he wasn’t even half as good as you.” Minnie complements, and Clem feel a warmth spreading across her face. “Well, that’s one thing I’m really stressed of, someone hearing me play, only Ellie heard that she always said I’m great at it, but I didn’t believe her.” Clem admits and Minnie smiles. “Well, you should believe her, you’re great at it, and if you don’t believe me, or Ellie, go to Louis he kinda knows his way around instruments, at least better than I do.” Minnie suggests and Clem smiles too, but then Minnie had to ask Clem about her fear. “Ellie told me that you can’t imagine hurting someone by your death.” Minnie says and hears Clem sighing. “I think that’s actually one thing that I can’t even fight, I mean, let’s pretend for a second we’re together for about a year, I’ll need to go fight someone, like maybe raiders that may plan an attack on a school, and I’ll promise you that I’ll come back, and I never will, I just always thought that I’ll be able to push feeling I don’t really like away, and yet here you are, changing my whole look on this thing in not even a whole day.” Clem admits, she didn’t really thought how exactly she wanted to tell about it to Minnie, but she the arm around her isn’t moving, even better it starts to hold her even tighter. “Well, Ellie told me that you’re really experienced, and you told me earlier that Ellie told you that nothing can kill you.” Minnie tries to cheer Clem up, but she doesn’t hear anything, but she can feel ttwo soft hands on her waist, she doesn’t remember when was a last time she was with Violet like that, their relationship for last two months were avoiding each other, and arguments, most of them was because of lies of both Minnie and Violet, but Minnie doesn’t want to end up with Clem the same way she end up with Violet, but the way Clem holds her it’s not even close to what she felt whenever she was with Violet. “So what now?” Clem asks and Minnie shrugs, she really doesn’t know what they should do, she likes and idea of sitting there like that to moment when Sophie will call everyone for meal, but she wants to hear Clem play again. “How about you play something?” Minnie suggests and Clem is tensed up again, but hands don’t leave Minnie’s waist. “I won’t laugh, I promise.” Minnie promises and Clem sighs heavily, she lets go of Minnie and reaches for guitar, starting to play, not even a song, just something that her mind will tell her to. As she slowly plays, there are a few moments where she starts to play a little bit faster, and whole time Clem can’t help, but hear how Minnie hums along with her playing. They sit there for a couple minutes ignoring Sophie that calls everyone for meal, as much as Clem is hungry, she definitely prefers spending those couple of minutes with Minnie, well until another tall redhead don’t interrupt them. “Are you fucking deaf?” Ellie scolds, but she wasn’t aware of what was happening in hers room, she thought that Minnie was already thrown out by Clem, but here she is humming along when Clem plays on her guitar. “Did you ever heard of knocking?” Minnie scolds when she sees Ellie in the doorframe, she was just hoping to get those additional couple of minutes. “Yeah, but I thought that Clem is alone, we called you two for ten minutes.” Ellie explains, and then there’s an awkward silence. “So, I’ll tell them that you two will be there in a minute, and I’m not kidding, if you won’t come down I’ll drag you there, because Sophie said that we won’t eat until you two will be there.” Ellie warns and walks away quickly. “Okay, as much as I want to stay with you, I won’t let myself be dragged by Ellie to eat, and second thing is that I didn’t eat in two days, or was it three? So choice is pretty easy.” Clem starts actually wonder when was last time she ate as she puts away her guitar, and stand up she sees the pretended offend on Minnie’s face. “Food is more important than me?” Minnie asks with serious tone, and Clem nods with a smile. “In this situation? Yes.” Clem explains and hears Minnie frown, but she knows she didn’t take it seriously, and Minnie didn’t take it seriously, she can’t actually imagine how people can’t eat for longer than a day, she knows it’s possible, but in school they ate everyday unless someone didn’t earn they supper, but Minnie doesn’t remember that it ever happened. They finally make their out from dorms and sits by the table alone, well they were alone for about ten seconds until Louis sat with them, and after him Sophie, she had two bowls in her hands just as Louis. “So what you two lovebirds were up to?” Louis teases and Minnie frown at this, and Clem just rolls her eyes. “Just talking.” Clem tries to stop Louis, but he says something she didn’t expect. “Well, maybe now, but me and Sophie connected some facts, firstly, you two were up on bell tower, then the way you stood in front of cellar, and how you quickly pulled away when Ellie walked out from dorms, then you two alone in Clem’s room, wasn’t that hard to figure out that you’re something more than friends.” Louis lies, Sophie didn’t even knew about any of those things, he knows it from Ellie, he knows about their kiss too, but doesn’t share it, for now at least. “Okay, I admit we hugged in front of a cellar, and we were on bell tower, but nothing happened there.” Clem still tries to make him stop, she wants to focus on meal in front of her, but Louis wouldn’t stop, not unless they admitted. “So, Ellie lied about kiss on bell tower?” Louis argues, and Minnie chokes on her food, and starts coughing, as Clem pats her on back as she death glares at Louis. “No she didn’t lie, do you feel better?” Clem admits and both Sophie and Louis nods with huge smirks on their faces, and both of them walks off, well that’s better for Minnie and Clem, as Minnie stopped coughing. “You all right?” Clem asks with concern and Minnie waves it off. “Yeah, I just didn’t know that Ellie knew about what happened on bell tower.” Minnie admits and starts to eat again when she can. “Well, if I’d knew that she’d say someone I wouldn’t tell her, I’m sorry I shouldn’t.” Clem apologies and to avoid Minnie’s gaze she starts to eat, and it’s one of best things she ate in a long time, she don’t remember when she ate something warm, and that good, she was eating canned food for most part, sometime she was able to survive on one apple for three days. “Oh, you don’t have to apologize, I never told you shouldn’t tell anyone about it, so don’t sweat it, but if Louis knows about it, it means that it’s going to be short time for rest to hear about it.” Minnie regrets a little she didn’t warn Louis to not tell anyone about it she knows that her sister wouldn’t tell about it, because she knows one touchy secret of her. “Well, the faster the better, right?” Clem asks, and Minnie shrugs. “Well, not in this case, it’ll be so many to take in, Omar’s death, that Marlon knew about the raiders, and then some strangers rescuing them, and after that knowledge that one of said strangers is… Anything we are right now.” Minnie explains and Clem nods in understatement. “Well, talking about me and Ellie being strangers, you know that they won’t believe our word that we know you, right? We need something to convince them.” Clem says and Minnie starts thinking what they could say to convince the other kids. “Well, to Tenn, a boy around twelve years old, mine and Sophie’s brother, he doesn’t look like me and Sophie though, tell him that you know us, but knowing Violet she won’t believe it… She’s a blonde, a little bit taller than you, told her that when she needs quiet she goes on bell tower, if that won’t work, then Ruby a short redhead, she patches people up you could say her that, Aasim tall boy with black hair, he’s tanned, tell him that you know about his diary, or as he would say it ‘history book’, that should be enough.” Minnie says something about her family and friends, enough for Clem to make them go with them, at least she hopes so. “Well, that should be enough.” Clem says as she ends her food, as well as Minnie, after that whole group talked for a couple of minutes, then walked off to their chores, well as much as Clem and Ellie could do, as Sophie and Minnie insisted for them to go to sleep, as they’ll need much energy for the night.


	8. Chapter 8

Clem’s eyes flutter open, as much as she didn’t like an idea of going to sleep she did it anyway, well most likely, because Minnie asked her to. “You’re finally awake.” Says familiar bluesy voice, but it does make Clem tense up a little bit, because she just now realized that hers hands are around Minnie’s waist. “Yeah… Okay, how long have you been laying with me?” Clem asks from curiosity, and Minnie starts to think about an answer. “About ten minutes.” Minnie lies, she’s been lying with Clem for good hour, and fortunately for Minnie, Clem didn’t notice. “Ellie is still sleeping?” Clem asks and feels Minnie nod. “Yeah. It’s still quite bright outside, we could lay here for a minute longer.” Minnie suggests, and Clem is a little bit surprised that Minnie told, she would think that Minnie will want Clem to go rescue her friends immediately, but that’s not the case, and Minnie sees this surprise on Clem’s face. “Well, I wanted to ask you, that when you rescue people from Delta will you stay here? I know that you wanted to come with Ellie to Jackson.” Minnie asks and Clem shrugs. “Probably stay here, but you know there’s still odds that I won’t come back from there.” Clem explains and Minnie sighs. “You’ll come back.” Minnie says with reassuring tone, but Clem doesn’t feel like that’s going to happen. “Maybe…” Clem sighs as she sits up, she really need to wake up Ellie and go to Delta outpost, maybe it’s not dark outside, but it will in thirty minutes, and by then they have to be there. “Will you change your mind if I’d say please?” Minnie asks, and Clem turns her head to Minnie with a smile. “Maybe.” Clem answers and Minnie chuckles. “Please don’t die in there.” Minnie begs with a sarcastic voice and Clem rolls her eyes. “I’ll do anything I can to not die, but you’ll owe me.” Clem retorts, as she stands up from bed and walks over to Ellie’s bed. “Ellie wake up.” Clem tries to wake Ellie up, and Ellie waves her hand at her. “Two more minutes.” Ellie mumbles through sleep, and Clem knows what she has to say to make Ellie wake up instantly. “So, you’ll let Dina wait?” Clem teases, and as she predicted, Ellie sits up as soon as she hears Clem. “Let’s go.” Ellie commands as she stands up from bed and stretches herself. “Go for our gear, and wait for me in front of gate, I’ll be there in a minute.” Clem says, Ellie nods and walks out from room. Minnie gets up from bed and grabs Clem by the waist and pulls her to herself, as Clem throws her hands around Minnie’s neck. “So we have a minute for ourselves.” Clem says, and Minnie nods. “So what we’re going to do?” Clem asks, and Minnie pretends like she really thinks about it. “Well… How about a goodbye kiss?” Minnie says, and Clem nods, their lips connect, in sweet kiss, slow and loving one. As they pull away, Minnie sees the expression on Clem’s face, completely blank, but in a good way, her eyes completely stargazed, Minnie smiles and kisses Clem once more, but much more quickly, just to get her out from transe, and when she realized what happened her face is covered by a blush, and Minnie giggles at the view. “Okay, now go, I think our minute passed.” Minnie says, and Clem smiles, blush slowly disappearing, they let go of each other and Clem picks up her backpack and throws it on her back and starts going towards door, but she’s stopped once again by Minnie. “You owe me a shirt.” Minnie says, and Clem is confused by her words, she doesn’t know what she means, and Minnie notices that. “Well, when you threw your arms around my neck in front of cellar, your hands were from blood and it stayed on my shirt.” Minnie explains Clem’s confusion, and Clem rolls her eyes, as she takes her backpack from her back and reaches there and takes out her shirt with cuts on back, and throws it to Minnie. “But it has blood too.” Clem jokes, throws her backpack again on her back, and Minnie’s eyes widen at how long cuts look. “Uh… It’s not normal to have something like that on back and joke about this.” Minnie tries to realize this to Clem but she just smiles. “Well, people that done it are dead, so you don’t have to worry about them.” Clem explains and Minnie shakes her head in disapproval. “I’m worried about you.” Minnie says and Clem smiles again. “Don’t worry, I were in worse condition, but I really have to go, or Ellie will drag me out. Bye.” Clem says Minnie didn’t like how ‘I was in worse condition’ sounded, but before she could ask about that Clem walked out from room, and quickly runs towards courtyard, but quiet enough to not wake someone up, even if she’s sure that no one is sleeping right now, she doesn’t want to take her chances. Clem finally reaches courtyard and sees Sophie on watch, and Ellie leans on the wall, with her backpack next to her, and two rifles next to it. “You’re finally out, catch.” Ellie says, stands up and throws Clem one of the rifles, and brunette checks ammo, and it have one full magazine, it’s too much, as she counted about fifteen raiders on ship counting Dina and Luke in, but she doesn’t think she’ll have to shoot to them. “We’re ready to go?” Ellie asks and Clem nods, both of them start to walk out from school, Sophie wished them luck and Clem thanked, Ellie didn’t react. They walk for good hour, slower than usual they don’t want to stumble upon some walkers, they don’t talk with each other, which isn’t anything new, always when they were going doing something more important, they didn’t talk at all, or a little bit when they were coming back. They whole trip wasn’t too eventful, nothing happened apart from one walker that they just killed with a quick knife to the head, after that they listened if there’s more, but there wasn’t, so they started to walk to their destiny again. The boat is in field of view, and Clem did study those maps from Luke, and she knows where they have to go, so she tells Ellie to follow her and they see a big cargo door that seems like some kind of garage door, big enough to easily fit a whole cart of supplies, they look around and don’t see nobody on watch, and watchman on top of ship gives them about a ten second gap in their lookout changes, and as soon as one of them walks away, Ellie and Clem runs towards open doors and immediately hides behind a crate, Clem leans out a little to check if anybody is there, and as promised Luke, and Dina are there, but there’s another guy, and Dina actually notices Clem and makes eye contact, and with gesture Clem tells Dina to bother a guard, when Clem will try to kill him, Dina does just that and starts speaking to guard about what happened in school, Luke is dumbfounded, but he notices Clem sneaking up on man with a knife in her hand, guard is turned back to Clem, and as soon as he wants to turn back Dina stops him by another question, giving Clem time to stab guard right in his neck and head. “I hated him.” Dina says as guard falls dead on ground, Ellie runs up to her and gives Dina a hug, just now she realized how much she missed Dina, earlier she was runned by pure rage, but now, when she sees her girlfriend is like whole world didn’t matter anymore. “Okay, listen to me, if things will go south, we need to be quick and merciless, we can’t risk losing any of our lives or hostages, so me and Ellie will go unlock them, they probably will trust me and her faster, while you’ll be making sure that no one is around.” Clem explains, actually she just now thought of that, but looking at it, they wouldn’t probably want to talk to Dina, or Luke as they’re actually in Delta, but Clem did kill one of Delta man in front of them, and they didn’t kill her, so that makes them trustworthy, at least for now. “Okay, but you’ll do the talking, I might not be patient enough.” Ellie supports an idea, Luke and Dina agree too. “Okay, I saw those horses, not far from here, if we manage we will take them too, but I’m not so sure about raft with supplies.” Clem explains next phase of her plan, it’s still not perfect, but they’ll have to make it with what they have. “So, we’re ready?” Luke asks, and Clem nods, she doesn’t know why, but she feels responsible for how this will go. As they go through levels of boat to prison cells, they didn’t kill any of Delta man, they just avoided them as much as they could, with a hope that they won’t go after Clem and rest if they’ll notice faster than they want that no prisoner is on boat. Clem and her squad reaches their destiny and unfortunately someone is guarding prisoners, but that was to expect. “Fuck… That’s Harry, Luke what now?” Dina asks, she and Luke know this mountain of man, he’s really tall and he ain’t exactly skinny. “Well… I won’t be able to distract him, he’s one of most indoctrinated people on this ship.” Luke remarks, he doesn’t know what to do, he once saw that Harry got shot two times in his chest, and he kept fighting so confronting him will alert rest of the ship. “I have an idea, I’ll go to him, tell him I was sent here, and that I came here looking for Delta, and when I’ll be able to I’ll stab him in the neck, it can’t be that hard can it?” Clem says and Ellie don’t exactly like that idea. “Okay, but if we’ll have to we’ll shoot him, we ain’t risking your life.” Ellie suggests, and Clem agrees, this one time she’s ready for confrontation if things won’t go how she wants them to. Clem gives her rifle to Ellie, gets up and raises her head, Harry aims at her with his crossbow, aiming straight for the head. “What are you doing here?” Man asks and Clem walks a little closer. “I was sent here, by Dina I think her name was, she told to get here, and that someone should be here, to tell me what will happen next.” Clem lies, she walks a little bit closer, but not too close, or too fast, she don’t she’ll be able to dodge that bolt, not from that close. “Are you armed?” Man asks gripping his crossbow tighter, he don’t believe Clem, not by a bit. “I’m not, they took my weapons at entrance.” Clem lies again, she still have her knife, that seems to relax man a little. “Come here, I need to lock you up, and go to tell Lilly that you’re here” Harry says, lowers his crossbow a little, and Clem walks up to him, and when she’s close enough she takes her knife and jumps on him, stabbing him in his back, but man didn’t die, he did cough with blood, but he was still fighting, Clem didn’t like that, she kicked him in abdomen making him back up a little giving Clem a chance to take out her knife from man’s back, and stab him again in abdomen this time, loss of blood and shock make him unconscious, Luke, Ellie and Dina don’t like sound of fighting and that it takes a little longer than it should, but when they hear a knife stabbing someone, they stop breathing, they don’t know if that’s Clem stabbing Harry, or the other way around, but they relieved when they hear Clem’s voice. “It’s clear.” Clem informs and the rest gets up too, Ellie throws her rifle. “Okay, I’ll go to them, and you wait for me.” Clem says, and gets into a corridor in which there’s a lot of some kind of cells, she can hear someone asking what’s happening, she walks to that cell and looks in it, she sees eight people that panic when they see her. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Clem tries to calm them down, but it ain’t working. “Why should we trust you, from what we know you could be with those assholes.” A blonde retorts, she was comforting an auburn haired girl. “I guess Tenn is here?” Clem asks and a she sees a kid playing with his fingers from stress, and Minnie was right boy doesn’t look like Minnie or Sophie. “I know your sisters, they were the one who asked me to help you all.” Clem says, she didn’t open up cell, not yet at least she wants people inside it to believe her, it won’t really matter if she opens up cell, and they won’t walk out from it. “You killed them?” Blonde asks again, Clem looks at her and she is the only blonde that is inside, apart from one boy with a haircut that looks like a dead rat, so that have to be Violet. “So you’re Violet, I know that when you need the quiet you go up on bell tower in school, the tanned boy back there, Aasim right?, you have your ‘history book’ as Minnie told me, and the short redhead, Ruby, you patch people up, and as much as I would love to meet rest of you, we need to get the hell out of here.” Clem surprises people inside cell, and she opens it, she don’t hold any weapon her rifle is hangs on her back, with strap going through her chest, her knife still in Harry’s abdomen, she intends to pull it out when she’ll walk out from cell. “Can you be a little faster?” Ellie asks with her voice a little raised, for Clem to hear her. “Yeah, one moment.” Clem answers and turns again to people inside cell. “Come with me, I want to take you home, and besides, if I wanted to kill you’d be already dead.” Clem tries to relieve tension, and blond man steps up. “Okay, we’ll go with you, but don’t try anything, or you’ll be dead.” Blond man threatens, normally she would tell him to fuck off, but she needs them alive, and with her in school, so even if she doesn’t like it she agrees on his terms, even if she didn’t plan to do anything to them. Clem walks out, eight people after her, she can hear a couple of gasps when they see a man with a knife in his abdomen, and Clem like nothing ever happened pulls knife out and hides it again, they sort of regroup, Clem is walking last, Dina on right, Ellie on left, and Luke in front of group as he knows boat best, everything would go smoothly if not a loud, heavy steps behind them, before she could even notice, Harry, man she thought was dead rammed her, Ellie noticed that, and without thinking twice shot man right in the head from rifle, nothing would happen if not rest of Delta soldiers on boat, that had to hear gunfire, they started running towards exit, quickly taking what was most important from warehouse, they were before, before they walked out, Clem stopped them. “Don’t run in pack, they’ll just shoot you immediately, scatter around but don’t run in opposite directions, we won’t be able to search for you until tomorrow.” Clem instructs, and everybody seems to understand, some of them have duffle bags on their backs, some of them with weapons and ammo, some of them with water and food, and Clem thought of taking explosives, but she rejected that idea, there was no time to pick that many things, and even if they had time, they didn’t had that much duffel bags, there were probably more somewhere on the boat, but with knowledge that armed men were coming their way, they didn’t had time for that either. When they were just to leave a bullet flied right next to Clem’s head, she told rest to run, while she had plans to make sure that they won’t be interrupted by men behind them, Clem quickly ducked behind cover, readying her rifle, and preparing herself for what was going to happen. Clem leans out a little and sees that man rushes to her position and Clem quickly shots him in the leg making him fall, and allowing Clem to shoot him in head from behind cover, as much as she can continue just killing Delta men one by one, they would just come in bigger group not allowing Clem to take them out, not one by one, and leaning out would be death for her, she looks around, looking for something useful, and then she sees it, a grenade, not that far from her, she leans out, checking if no one is going towards her, she can hear muffled voices, saying that she’ll die, and Clem uses a opportunity and goes for grenade, it is hand-made as most of weapons in this days, but she don’t complain, it’s just enough for her to make a run for it. She pulls a pin from grenade and throws it towards doors from which she can hear shouting, the shouting stops when people shouting sees grenade, Clem don’t wait and runs out from boat, Ellie sees that and yells to Luke to start shooting towards top of the boat to provide Clem covering fire, she might need, Ellie wouldn’t forgive herself if something would happen to Clem, it’s one of three people she’s sure she can’t lose, Clem, Joel, and Dina. Clem runs like hell, she don’t remember when she runned that fast, she didn’t even notice when she was next to Ellie and rest, only Ellie, Dina, Luke and Clem weren’t panicking, well Dina maybe a little, but not as much as kids from school, Clem doesn’t blame them, she don’t think they were under fire from anyone, and the there’s many people on boat shooting towards them, bullets flying next to trees, hitting ground, trees around them, but forest there is thick enough for them to run away without too much risk, she saw, that Ruby, Aasim calming down horses and some kid was helping them. “What now!?” Blonde man asks, and Clem thinks about it. “Okay, me, Luke, and Ellie will give you covering fire, and you’ll run towards school, leave horses we will take them!” Clem explains and man nods, after making sure everyone was ready Clem, Luke and Ellie started shooting towards boat, bullet flew right next to Clem’s face, but that didn’t distract her, as soon as three started shooting, people on ship took cover, giving kids chance to run away, when they did, three took cover again, waiting for opportunity to run for horses, and when the shooting from boat isn’t so intense they make a run for it and with some miracle they run away on horses.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if someone could tell me if I can't count or I don't remember some of the kids from school, at start I counted eight, and when doing this chapter it was six, so please someone tell me if I counted right this time.

It didn’t took long to catch up to the rest of people Clem, and Ellie rescued, they’re quiet for some time to listen for anything that maybe dangerous, from walkers, to Delta men. “Well, there goes not shooting one bullet thing.” Luke jokes after making sure they as safe as they can, Ellie seems angry at his remark. “I made the right choice.” Ellie retorts, and Luke is chuckles. “I know you did, and I’m not saying you didn’t, but now we need to hope we didn’t kill too much of their men.” Luke apologizes and Clem sighs deeply, she doesn’t know how many soldiers was victim to grenade she threw. “What was that explosion, I don’t want to pull shrapnel out of you.” Ellie asks, looks at Clem, she doesn’t see any holes in her jacket, well apart from two cuts on her back, but it’s there for about a week. “I threw a grenade at door from which Delta men came out, to give myself a time to run, thanks for support on my run by the way.” Clem thanks Ellie. “Well, I think you risked a little bit more than we did.” Luke argues, and Clem doesn’t want to retort, but no one from group of kids she rescued didn’t even thanked her, or Ellie. “Can I ask, why the hell you’re working with Delta people?” Blonde man asks, Clem can see disgust on his face. “If not them, you’d be still there.” Clem retorts and blonde man huffs. “I think it would be better if we would be there, they’ll go after us, I’m sure of it.” Man complains and it’s really getting to start on Clem’s nerves. “If you’re so keen to join them, then go to them, I don’t mind.” Clem advices with huge sarcasm in her voice, it’s hearable from mile away. “Could you two shut up?” Ellie asks and Clem huffs. “We saved them and I don’t think they even thanked us.” Clem explains why she’s arguing, and Ellie sighs. “I got Dina back, that’s what I care about, plus you know that I’ll be gone by tomorrow, I don’t really care about their thanks.” Ellie says and Clem understands her. “We should thank you for killing us?” Man asks, and Clem clutches her hand in fist. “Well, if not for that, then maybe for helping your friends back at school?” Clem retorts, and tries to calm herself down, she don’t remember when person that didn’t try to kill her made her so angry. “We don’t even know it they’re alive.” Man argues, and Clem can hear from someone from group. “Marlon, drop it, they saved us, and the rest at school, and you’re still arguing with her.” Clem heard that name before, he’s leader of group, Clem wonders if the rest knows about that Marlon knew that raiders might attack them. “I’ll be glad if I at least hear rest of your names.” Clem states, as she recognizes only Tenn, Ruby, Aasim, Marlon and Violet from group, and everyone introduced themselves, apart from four whose names Clem already knew, Brody, Willy. Clementine, Dina, Luke and Ellie introduced themselves too, but Ellie was reluctant to do so. Dina walked her way to Ellie, to talk to her, she missed her, but there’s no time for showing that, at least now, and another thing they don’t notice that Marlon is eavesdropping. “So I guess we’re going to Jackson?” Dina asks and Ellie nods. “Yeah, I have enough of walking from Jackson to Prescott, then do some job, Jackson, and repeat, if Clem will want to she can come with us, but I don’t think she will.” Ellie answers, and Dina is already curious why Clem won’t come with them. “Why?” Dina wants to know, and she won’t be satisfied with ‘I don’t know’ respond, and Ellie knows it. “Well, but that’s between us, she has a girlfriend, I mean, from what Clem told me they aren’t together, but I don’t believe her.” Ellie explains, she doesn’t like an idea of Dina knowing about this, because she’s sure that Dina will tease Clem about it. Clem starts to think how much they have to school it’s about ten minutes walk, as they did run some of way to school.  
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Sophie sat on watchtower, her sister joined her after almost three hours after Clem and Ellie walked out from school, Sophie can see that her sister is really nervous. “I can swear I heard a gunshot.” Minnie says under her breath, it’s new for Minnie to be that nervous. “Well, it could be Clem, or Ellie shooting, not necessarily Delta.” Sophie tries to calm down her sister, by this time Mitch is asleep, as Louis waits with twins, but didn’t came to tower. “There’s still an odd, right?” Minnie still insists, Sophie didn’t heard any gunshot, it could be Minnie’s imagination. “I don’t think they could kill Ellie and Clem with one bullet, and we would hear more if Clem, or Ellie get killed since the other one would fire back, right?” Sophie still tries, but to no avail. “I hope you’re right, I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to them.” Minnie says, and Sophie turns her head to her. “Why? They knew the risk.” Sophie bluffs, she wouldn’t forgive herself tot, but she wants to know the reason why her sister wouldn’t. “Well, I was the one who talked Clem into this mess, we told them to rescue people they don’t know, apart from Ellie’s girlfriend, but they couldn’t knew if she would be there or not.” Minnie explains, and waits for reaction from her sister, but she sees some movement in the woods in front of school, Minnie immediately stands up and grabs her bow, she knows how to use it, but she isn’t good with it, Sophie does the same even if she’s even less experienced with bow, they’re ready to fire, and Louis sees them and grabs his chair leg, he doesn’t have bow with him. Minnie is focused on who’s approaching gates, she sees three horses in front, and some people behind them with some bags on their backs. Couple seconds pass, and on front of people siblings can see girl with a hat with ‘D’ on it. “They fucking did it.” Minnie says, and puts down her bow, and almost jumps down from watchtower, Sophie behind her, siblings open gates for people coming back, after another couple of seconds horses and people behind them walks inside walls of school, Clem, Ellie, some man Minnie, Sophie and Louis don’t recognize, probably this old friend Clem talked about they think, and all of their friends behind them, but Sophie and Minnie runs towards their brother hugging him closely. “I missed you.” Tenn says embracing his sisters. “Me too.” Minnie and Sophie says at the same time. Clem, and Ellie ties horses to the tree. “As much as I want to, I need to go, but if you two would happen to be in Richmond you’ll probably find me there, if Javi won’t kill me for that clusterfuck at Delta’s outpost. See you later.” Luke says and he rides off, Minnie, Sophie and Louis are approaching Ellie and Clem. “So how close to death it was?” Louis jokes, he doesn’t know what happened. “Let’s put it like this, if Clem wouldn’t be crazy, it could be worse.” Ellie answers, but that’s not enough for Louis. “Define crazy.” Louis demands and Clem sighs, she can explain it, she doesn’t need Ellie to explain what she done. “Well, basically I fought with couple of soldiers on my own, when the rest where running, and to be sure I’ll be able to run away too I threw grenade at them, I don’t know how many of them I killed with it, but it gave me enough time to run away.” Clem explains herself, and three looks amazed. “Not her best display to be honest.” Ellie admits, she saw Clem do better, but then she didn’t really came out unharmed. “Well, I’m not sure if I want to know more, but we really want to thank you two, you did something we couldn’t and we can’t even give you anything for your help, but you can be sure that you’re always welcome here, no matter what Marlon says.” Minnie thanks, Sophie, and Louis too, but Minnie was the one who said more than simple ‘thank you’. “What did Marlon said?” Clem asks, he really starts to get on her last nerve, and she just can’t believe that some of people still trust him, well no one that wasn’t captured, but she’s not so sure about the rest. “Well, he said that your actions can mean death to us.” Minnie starts to answer. “That you killed many of their people, and that you stole their supplies, that you’re a ‘threat to the group’.” Sophie continues quoting with her fingers, and Clem starts thinking about what they done on Delta ship, they will probably come after Clem as she’s the only one that Delta men seen. “Their people saw only me, if they’ll come here, I’ll deal with it.” Clem admits to what she done, she was the one who told to take Delta’s supplies. “If we’re talking about Marlon, we need to talk in private, me, Mitch, and you three, we need to decide what you’ll do with him.” Clem says, and catches attention of twins, and Louis. “If you want to stay, then you have a vote too, I’ll go wake up Mitch, with hope that he won’t kill me for it, and we’ll meet in music room in about ten minutes.” Louis supports her idea, and walks off towards dorms, after a while Ellie were gone too, saying that she’s going to catch up with Dina. “Well, I’ll go and tell the rest about Omar.” Sophie walks off, she knows if she’ll say about Omar’s death in wrong way, Marlon will blame Clem, and from Sophie knows Omar could be dead before Clem and Ellie were in school. “So what we will do?” Minnie asks, and Clem shrugs, she does want to be alone with Minnie for a couple of minutes, but firstly they should settle what they want to do with Marlon. “We wait, and if needed rescue Louis from Mitch.” Clem jokes, and hears Minnie chuckle. “Well, when he hears that you and Ellie rescued rest, he probably won’t kill him.” Minnie says, and Clem shrugs and two of them walks towards free table. “Sophie said them.” Minnie says, Clem doesn’t look at people hearing bad news from Sophie. “How do you know?” Clem asks and Minnie grabs her head and points it towards Marlon, he’s coming to them, rather mad. “You said that you save everyone.” Marlon says with raised voice, and Clem shakes her head. “Oh no, no, no, I told that I saved your friends, I never said, I rescued everyone, and besides he could be dead before I even walked inside this school.” Clem corrects his statement, Minnie doesn’t interrupt, she wants to help Clem, but she have a feeling that she might accidently tell about that Marlon knew about raiders. “I’m leader here, and I’m the one deciding, maybe you couldn’t help Omar, but you’re out of here, now, you and yours two friends.” Marlon demands, and Clem stands up, she’s so close to hitting him, but she doesn’t want to do it, at least now. “I save your sorry ass, and this is how you thank me? Maybe we shall ask other for opinion? Minnie?” Clem didn’t want to pull others in her mess, but she knows if she gives Marlon enough time, he’ll convince other that she’s a threat to the group. “She stays, Sophie, Louis, and Mitch will probably say the same thing, they didn’t want anything in return for help, and now you want to kick them out? Fuck you.” It’s first time Minnie stood up, almost always she agreed with Marlon judgement, but not now, she clearly sees that Clem is right in this situation, plus this thing that is between them? Minnie doesn’t remember when she felt that way about someone, even if she don’t know Clem that good. “Could you kindly fuck off? I’m not really in mood to argue with anyone.” Clem asks sternly, and sees this mischievous look in Marlon eyes. “Let’s face it, you’re a coward, you act like you’re tough, that you’re not scared of death, but you just don’t care if you’ll live or die, I’m pretty sure that people die around you, people you love, but you’re too scared to give your life for theirs, and they end up dead, ain’t that true?” Marlon hits where it hurts, Clem wants to retort, but she can’t she feels it’s true, she didn’t admit to it, but it is, from Luke and Ellie all of her friends are dead why Ellie and Luke are alive? Because they don’t spend much time around her, actually Clem barely saw Ellie, Luke wasn’t around for four years. Clem feels tears appearing in her eyes, she gets overwhelmed and just walks off, trying not to cry, but as soon as she’s inside dorms she don’t bottle it up. Ellie was talking with Dina, she saw that Clem talked to Marlon, but she didn’t thought it’ll go that way, as soon as she sees her going away, almost crying she knows that Marlon said something he shouldn’t. “I’ll kill him.” Ellie blurts out and goes toward table to ‘talk’ with Marlon. “What the fuck did you do?!” Ellie asks, her voice is filled with rage, Clem isn’t the one who walks away if something troubles her, Dina followed her, Minnie is surprised by what Clem done, the first thing Minnie thought Clem would do is beating Marlon, but that didn’t happen. “Told her the truth.” Marlon answers smirk on his face indicates he’s satisfied what he done. “Define truth.” Ellie demands, but Marlon smirks is even wider, by this time people heard them and came check what they’re arguing about. “Not that it really matters, you three are leaving. Right. Now.” Marlon commands, he thinks that it’ll go easier than with Clem, oh how much he doesn’t know. “Okay, but we’re taking everything we took, we worked for it, you done jack shit, apart from carrying it here.” Ellie agrees, but not on Marlon’s terms. “If you want Minnie you can tag along.” Ellie suggests, but Minnie doesn’t listen to her she’s more worried about Clem. “I’ll go check on Clem.” Minnie says and walks off. Marlon shakes his head on deal Ellie suggested. “It’s ours now, you took it here, you’re outnumbered, you’re leaving right now.” Marlon threatens Ellie, it’s really stupid from his side, Ellie pulls out her weapon and aims towards Marlon’s head. “Ellie, calm down.” Dina tries to defuse situation, everyone from school tries to do same thing. “Who has upper hand now? We can do it three ways, I won’t have to kill you, you’ll just let us out, taking everything from Delta’s ship with us, we can go tomorrow, but we won’t take everything, or you can try and fight back, but you ain’t leaving this fight alive.” Ellie now is the one who threatens Marlon, she can see fear in his eyes. “You’re leaving tomorrow, we can’t allow to lose all of this supplies.” Marlon decides on second option, and Ellie hides her pistol. “I know something, no one else knows, one stupid thing you do and everyone will know about it.” Ellie says, making everyone wondering what she means, apart from Sophie, she knows what this will be about. Ellie walks off with Dina far away from everyone, Sophie follows them “Well, at least you didn’t shoot him.” Sophie sighs with relief, and Ellie shrugs. “I probably wouldn’t pull the trigger, unless he would try attack me, if I shall be honest I usually don’t intervene if someone does something stupid to Clem, she usually gets it done herself, but I never seen her cry, and if Marlon made her cry he needed to say something he shouldn’t, and besides I’m not really open to other people, I’m a little bit more open here, because I know that I won’t be here by tomorrow.” Ellie explains, she doesn’t want to worry anyone that she starts shoot people for stupid threat, or anything that she wouldn’t like. “Well good to know… You ain’t going to check on Clem?” Sophie asks, she saw Clem too, but didn’t thought it’s serious by any means. “In a while, don’t understand me wrong, normally I wouldn’t care about what Marlon did, I’d go after Clem, but I think that Clem is more open to your sister than me sometimes.” Ellie explains herself, and Sophie nods. “If you want to take part in choosing what will happen with Marlon wait in music room in about ten minutes, but I wouldn’t count on Clem’s presence.” Sophie informs, Ellie nods and Sophie walks off. “They’ll love you now for sure.” Dina jokes and Ellie smiles, and grabs her by the waist, as Dina places her hands behind Ellie’s neck. “You should know by now that I care about love of one person.” Ellie says and can see Dina’s smirk. “Who’s that person?” Dina asks and Ellie rolls her eyes. “You, you idiot.” Ellie answer and Dina pulls her closer for a kiss, a short, but loving one. “Well, maybe we should check on Clem?” Dina asks and Ellie nods dumbly.  
-  


Minnie quickly made her way to Clem’s and Ellie’s room, probably Dina will be sleeping there too for some time, but on her way she bumped into Louis, and Mitch. “Good to see you too… You know what happened to Clem?” Louis asks with concern almost falling when redhead bumped into him. “Marlon is stupid, that’s a shortcut of what happened.” Minnie explains, but don’t satisfy Louis. “What do you mean by ‘stupid’?” Louis asks again and Minnie sighs heavily. “I’ll explain when we’ll decide about Marlon okay?” Minnie suggests and Louis nods and walks off with Mitch. Minnie goes even quicker, and in shortly she’s in front of door to Clem’s room, and she hesitantly knocks on them, Minnie is sure that she can hear sobs from inside the room, Minnie sighs when she hears no answer. “Clem, it’s me… Can I come in?” Minnie asks and when she hears no answer again, she opens door anyway walks in and closes door behind her. “Don’t tell me you’re crying, because he insulted you.” Minnie says, she’s sure that’s not the reason why Clem cries, Minnie sits next to Clem and places her hand over her shoulders and pulls her closer. “No… He’s right, I don’t care about my life, I already tried to end it, but I couldn’t even do that, I’m a coward, people do die around me, it happened to almost everyone that I knew, Ellie survived because she doesn’t really spend that much time with me, and Luke lives because he didn’t had anything to do with me for good four or five years, Ellie thinks I never cried, bullshit, I cry more than I like to admit, speaking with Ellie, doing anything with her was what distracted me from anything shitty that happened in my life, when she wasn’t around, I wasn’t smiling, talking, but then I met you, you actually know about me more than Ellie does, she doesn’t know that I tried to kill myself.” Clem admits, she never said so much about herself, and Minnie’s heart swells with pride to know that she’s equally on level of trust with Ellie, but then her mind runs to thought that Clem tried to kill herself, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. “He’s not right, tell me do you know any other person that’s ready to risk life for a couple of strangers? To make a plan to rescue people from armed people in less than twenty four hours? You’re the most brave person I ever knew.” Minnie tries to comfort girl in her arms. “And you can’t decide who will survive and who will not, it’s not your fault, but person, or thing that did it.” Minnie says, she feels tears on her shoulder. “It means a lot to me to hear it from you.” Clem thanks through sobs. “But it still hurts as hell, but as long as you’re with me I don’t care.” Clem says. “I’ll have to go and share my opinion about Marlon… If you don’t feel ready for that, tell me what you feel about it, and I’ll tell them what you want, okay?” Minnie asks and Clem nods, finally returning hug fully. “On mine we should throw him out, and I’m not saying that, because of what he told to me, but he can always sell someone to protect his own ass, and that Delta saw what I can do, and because I know my luck first person he’d give away would be me.” Clem gives her point of view on whole situation, Minnie thinks exactly the same. “I agree with you, but I don’t really feel like leaving you alone.” Minnie says and then they can hear a knock on doors. “Is everything alright?” Minnie and Clem can hear Ellie’s voice. “You could say that.” Minnie answers and looks at Clem. “Should I let them in?” Minnie whispers to Clem and she nods. “Walk in.” Minnie says and door opens, Dina and Ellie walking in, noticing Clem’s eyes all red from crying. “I met Louis on way here, they wait for us.” Ellie says, and Minnie sighs, gets up to talk with Ellie. “She’s calm now, but she wasn’t in great state when I walked in, I don’t think-” Minnie starts to make an excuse for Clem, but she’s being cut off by said brunette. “I can do it.” Clem says and Minnie smiles. “Well, that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about.” Ellie comments and four walks their ways to music room, Dina knows that she won’t have anything to say about Marlon case, but she wants to hear how it’ll end up. While walking down corridors of dorms Ellie slowed herself and Minnie down. “She seems relatively happy around you.” Ellie states, and Minnie smiles as Clem and Dina walk in front of them. “Well that’s what she told me little earlier, I just hope that Marlon won’t say anything else that will hurt her.” Minnie says through gritted teeths. “Then I’ll shoot him.” Ellie says bluntly. “Let’s hope that it won’t come to that.” Minnie retorts and then they’re all outside, Minnie can see that Marlon talked with others the disgust in most of their looks, but Brody ain’t looking at them like that, she has something more of guilty look, but no one bothered them, that’s something at least, all four of them gets ready for what will happen inside admin building of school.


	10. Chapter 10

As soon as four walked inside room, Sophie, Mitch and Louis were waiting for them. “So, we’re really doing it?” Louis asks and runs his head through his dreads, he ain’t a fan of idea that he needs to decide what to do with his best friend. “Yep, I’m not risking to let him try sell someone again.” Clem confirms and leans against wall, Dina looks at sister, only now noticing they’re twins, Ellie notices that. “What is it?” Ellie asks in whisper. “Marlon wanted to sell us twins, I didn’t notice any other twins around here.” Dina explains, she was with Delta, so she knows about some things that no one else in room knows. “Is there any other twins in your group?” Dina asks, and Sophie shakes her head. “Nope, there was, but they’re dead now.” Sophie answers and curiosity took over her. “Why do you ask?” Sophie asks. “Well, Marlon wanted to sell us twins, he told that to Lilly.” Dina explains and now it’s Mitch who’s curious. “And how do you know that?” Mitch demands, and Dina rolls her eyes. “She trusted me, she shouldn’t, she trusted me, because I wasn’t afraid of her, always answering on her order with some kind of joke or remark, and because she trusted me I knew about most of the things, like Marlon didn’t came to the deal, he was there, alone, and told Lilly to fuck off, that he has a really big group, and if they won’t stop nagging him, he’ll deal with them, that’s how Lilly said it to me.” Dina explains, and everyone is disappointed by Marlon’s stupid decision. “So wait… He wanted to sell me and Sophie?” Minnie asks for confirmation, and Dina nods. “I’m sure, since you’re the only twins here.” Dina confirms and Minnie mumbles something under her nose. “So, he knew that Delta is armored better than his group, it’s bigger than his group, he accepted a deal with them, then broke it, and threatened them?” Ellie asks and Dina nods again. “What a fucking idiot.” Ellie blurts out, but everyone thinks the same. “Okay it’s time to vote.” Clem says and everyone agrees. Everyone told their point of view on whole thing and if not Ellie’s voice there would be a tie between kicking Marlon out and letting him stay, and he’s getting kicked out. “If we kicking him out, we won’t let him go that fast, Delta is there, they’ll be looking for us, but we’re saying him tomorrow.” Louis exclaims, everyone sees hurt in his eyes, Marlon is his best friend after all. “Yeah, that’s what we’ll do, as much as I hate him we can’t let him die, but he can’t be a leader anymore, he could sell someone else.” Clem agrees to his idea, everyone agreed on Marlon not being a leader and they all walked in their directions. Minnie walks outside, everyone is minding their own business, but she can’t help, but notice those disgusted looks on Clem, but still Brody doesn’t look at Clem like that. “You noticed that too?” Minnie can hear Ellie’s voice from behind. “Yeah, I don’t know why they look at Clem like that.” Minnie confirms and Ellie sighs. “Could be my fault, I threatened Marlon with a gun.” Ellie admits and Minnie isn’t surprised. “I can understand that. Talking about Clem where did she went?” Minnie asks and Ellie smiles. “She told me that she’s going to apologize to Dina for letting her get kidnapped, I told her that it ain’t her fault, but she insisted.” Ellie answers, and goes with Minnie inside dorms, as Minnie doesn’t have to do anything that late, and no one will probably trust Ellie to hand her a hammer. They walk through corridors and hear someone running behind them. “Minnie, for your knowledge, I won’t be in our room today.” Sophie informs heavily breathing. “You’re adult, you don’t have to tell me that, you know?” Minnie asks, Ellie didn’t stop and made her way to room in which Dina and Clem was talking. “Well, I wanted you to know, since you and Clem could have some sort of privacy.” Sophie explains with a smirk and Minnie rolls her eyes. “Thank you for your modesty, tomorrow Ellie and Dina are leaving, so from tomorrow we will have some privacy in Clem’s room as well.” Minnie says and Sophie waves it off, but if Sophie touched topic of her sleeping somewhere else Minnie want her to says something more. “So where you’ll be sleeping then?” Minnie asks, and Sophie visabely tenses up. “Uh, I guess you won’t believe me if I’ll tell you that I’ll be in Tenn’s room?” Sophie says, and Minnie shakes her head. “Looking at how tensed up you are, I’m sure that you’ll be in Brody’s room.” Minnie says and Sophie nods Minnie knows that Sophie liked Brody for about a year now, but never had a courage to tell her that. “Yep.” Sophie finally says. “Don’t fuck it up.” Minnie says and Sophie rolls her eyes. “I’ll try.” Sophie says quietly and walks off. Minnie continues her way to Clem’s room, as she’s probably there, the only place that no one will bother her. Minnie walks inside room and sees Clem doing something in notebook as Ellie and Dina are talking about something, and she feels like Clem doesn’t even notice her, Ellie and Dina welcomed her, but not Clem. “Should I be worried?” Minnie asks Ellie quietly and Ellie just smiles. “Nope, it’s pretty normal for her to just zone out,especially if she doesn’t have anything else to do, but when she has to she’s focused, and if you’re really curious what she’s doing, she sketches, she’s actually great at this.” Ellie explains and Dina reminds herself of something. “We asked her if she could draw how me and Ellie end up together and it was perfect, never saw someone sketch like her.” Dina says, and Ellie reaches for her backpack, taking out piece of paper, and handing it to Minnie. “It’s the only sketch we saw from her, but she has whole notebook of those.” Ellie says as Minnie looks at sketch, it’s detailed drawing of Ellie and Dina pressing their foreheads together, smiles on their faces, some other figures around them, but none of them has details, Minnie expected that there won’t be any colors since it’s a sketch, but there’s colors, but only on eyes nowhere else. “She has many talents, doesn’t she?” Minnie states, and hands drawing back to Ellie, she takes it and puts it in her backpack. “Well, climbing, playing guitar, but that one is recent one she plays on it for about month or two, and is already great at it, sketching, knowledge in terms of guns, fighting with anything she can.” Ellie says and Minnie is surprised at how many talents Clem has. “Wouldn’t be surprised if she could kill someone with a pencil.” Dina says with a smirk and Minnie turns to Clem, her face is focused on something she draws, her hands going with incredible speed, it seems like nothing else matters to Clem right now. “Interrupt her, and we’ll know.” Ellie jokes and Minnie picks up chair from desk and places it next to Ellie’s bed and sits on it, she really doesn’t want to interrupt Clem. “How long she won’t pay any attention to anything?” Minnie asks and Ellie shrugs. “Depends on when she’ll get hungry and looking at how she ate today, she could be in this state till’ tomorrow unless sleep will get better of her.” Ellie explains. “How long it took her to draw you two?” Minnie asks again and Ellie starts thinking about it, it wasn’t that long ago, but still she didn’t really pay much attention to time that Clem was sketching. “Few hours, if she doesn’t have anything to do, she’ll focus on sketching, or playing on guitar, or anything she does in that moment and finish when she’ll be happy about results.” Ellie explains and Minnie nods. “Why you want to talk to her? If you can tell us.” Dina asks, she doesn’t know who Minnie is to Clem. “Well, my sister isn’t sleeping in our room, and I thought that she might want to sleep with me there.” Minnie explains. “Then tell her that, she maybe will show what she’s drawing.” Ellie advices and Minnie doesn’t like that, she thinks that Clem might not be happy if anyone stops her from whatever she’s sketching right now. “Okay, but if something happens I’m blaming you.” Minnie warns and gets up, comes closer to Clem and pokes her a little in her shoulder, which seems to have worked, and Clem didn’t stab Minnie with a pencil, so that’s good too. “How long have you been here?” Clem asks, as she quickly hides her notebook behind her, Clem clearly doesn’t want anyone to look what is inside. “Long enough to see drawing of Ellie and Dina, I don’t want to tell you anything, but you’re pretty good at it, Sophie could be jealous.” Minnie states and Clem waves it off. “Do you need something? I don’t want to sound rude, but I really want to end this.” Clem asks pointing to her notebook. “No, not really, but Sophie ain’t sleeping in our room, so I thought that you might want to use that opportunity.” Minnie explains and can hear Ellie and Dina talking behind them, not paying any attention to Clem and Minnie. “Okay.” Clem agrees and gets up, picks up her notebook and pencil and walks out from room with Minnie. “So… What are you drawing?” Minnie starts a conversation and Clem shakes her head to tell Minnie she won’t get to know. “I didn’t even started properly, but you’ll see it when I’ll be done with it.” Clem retorts and both of them walks inside Minnie’s and Sophie’s room, one wall of the room is filled with drawings, and Clem immediately knows it’s Sophie’s part of the room, since Minnie is singing, and she never told her she draws, Minnie closes doors behind them and as Clem looks around the room Minnie comes behind her and grabs her by waist, pulling her close to herself, startling shorter girl, but not scaring her, yet still Clem felt a sudden wave of heat on her face. “I’d put my head on yours, but this hat of yours is really smelly, and dirty.” Minnie comments and can hear Clem smirk. “Then take it off.” Clem urges and Minnie listens to her. “You should feel lucky, no one has taken that hat off apart from me.” Clem says and can feel Minnie nod as she takes off hat and throws it on her bed. “I feel lucky whenever I’m around you.” Minnie complements and blush on Clem’s face deepens. “I could say the same.” Clem answers and Minnie unties her hair and one of Minnie’s hand moved to Clem’s hair playing with it, Minnie starts to slowly sway herself and Clem from side to side. “What are we exactly?” Clem asks out of the sudden, Minnie wasn’t expecting to things go that way. “Whatever you want us to be.” Minnie says and Clem finally relaxes herself into Minnie’s touch. “Well, I thought that maybe we could… Be together like girlfriends.” Clem says shyness taking control of her voice, Minnie smiles at this. “Of course.” Minnie agrees and Clem smiles, Clem quickly takes Minnie’s hand from her waist, worrying taller girl a little bit, but it all faded away when Clem turned to her stood on her toes and pulled Minnie into loving kiss, but it quickly turned into more heated and fractic one, Clem knows where this will lead her and she also knows that if she won’t stop herself now she won’t be able to do it later, Minnie knows that too. “Minnie… As much as I want to do it, I’m exhausted and…” Clem starts and Minnie pulls away. “Well, I guess I maybe was a little bit too quick.” Minnie tries to joke, and scratches her neck as awkward tension is unbearable. “It’s not only that… I’m just... Afraid of what you’ll think of me when you’ll see me without clothes.” Clem explains and rubs her hand, she expect to see a disappointed look from Minnie, but she got look of understandment. “Scars?” Minnie asks for confirmation and Clem nods. “Well, if you’re not ready, I won’t push you, but scars just shows how much you lived through.” Minnie says and Clem nods again, Minnie lays down and when she sees that Clem doesn’t see that she laid down just so Clem had some space she pulled brunette to herself to make her lay down. “If you’re exhausted, sleep, I ain’t moving from here.” Minnie says with a reassuring tone and pulled Clem to herself, as close as she possibly could, so whole Clem’s body was in contact with most of hers, it wasn’t long till Minnie heard Clem’s breathe to slow down meaning she’s falling asleep, and it wasn’t long till exhaustion caught up to her too making her close her eyes and fall asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Clem wakes up when she hears shouting, and not long after someone knocks on doors, the first thing she notices is that it’s still dark outside and that Minnie is still asleep, then knocking on her door becomes more frequent, she quickly gets up, but Clem is careful to not wake Minnie up, and opens door, she really wants to get back into embrace of her girlfriend, girlfriend, Clem still can’t believe that Minnie agreed on this, when she opens doors she sees Sophie behind them. “What’s going on?” Clem asks sleep still on her eyes. “Brody said that she has to talk with Marlon, she looked stressed as hell, on edge to start panicking, I wanted to go with her, but she refused, and she didn’t came back, it was like twenty minutes and I’m sure I heard screaming.” Sophie explains so quickly that Clem barely understood anything. “And?” Clem asks, her mind still not quite functioning as it should. “Clem, please could you go look for her? Marlon was talking shit about you, and then talked with Brody and she rushed off after she pushed him, I went after her, she didn’t want to tell me about what they were talking about, but she seemed rather upset.” Sophie asks and Clem yawns, but nods. “Thank you, if you find her tell her to come back to me.” Sophie says, starts walking away and she kicks herself mentally for what she said. “So you slept with her?” Clem asks with a smirk on her face and Sophie turns back to her. “I promise to tell you anything you want to know, but please go after her.” Sophie promises and Clem nods and walks away as she hears some voices in the corridor, she closes to the door from which it appears she hears voices from, Clem tries to open them, she wants to end this as quick she can, but doors are closed. Clem looks around and sees a map of whole school, she sees that door she tried to open leads to cellar, she knows there’s another way inside, it’s outside. Clem quickly walks outside, she barely sees a thing, but she manages not to kill herself on the way outside, as soon as she reaches yard she walks to cellar doors and opens them without much of a hussle, then she can clearly hear voices, one of them is almost screaming and the other one sounds like it’s scared, she sneaks closer to the source and she now recognizes voices, Marlon and Brody, she expected this, but still it could be anyone, Clem is closer and Marlon is holding a flashlight she don’t see him, but she can see Brody with no problem. “She fucking saved us!” Brody raises her voice. “Her actions will be end of us!” Marlon screams and then sees someone in the shadows. “Who is it? Show yourself.” Marlon commands and Clem listens and walks out to be blinded by flashlight. “What are you two doing here? In the dark?” Clem asks and Marlon tries to act like he’s calm out of the sudden. “We discussed a few things, go to sleep Clem, you deserved it.” Marlon says and Clem scuffs. “I did, you woke me up.” Clem lies, she became really good at this, but she rarely had to lie. “We’re sorry…” Brody apologizes with weak voice, Clem can just sees that Brody is scared of Marlon. “Brody, if he tried to do anything to you, tell me, we can do something with this.” Clem promises and Marlon sighs angrily. “He didn’t do anything to me, but he intends to something to you and Ellie.” Brody says quickly, presence of Clem visabely gave her the courage to say something against Marlon. “Brody!” Marlon warns Brody flinches at this. “What he intends to do? You can tell me.” Clem reassures and Brody breaths in to calm herself down. “He wants to sell you and Ellie to Delta, to save his ass, because-” Brody starts, but gets cut off by Marlon. “Brody!” Marlon warns again, but it doesn’t work this time. “Because he’s too scared to tell anyone what he did!” Brody says loudly and then Marlon hits her making Brody fall and loss consciousness, but not kill her, but hit cut her eyebrow, but not fatally. “What did you do?!” Clem asks, Marlon panics, thinking that Brody is dead. “She’ll turn.” Marlon exclaims and runs away locking door behind him, Clem called after him, but didn’t run after him Brody’s state isn’t fatal, but she won’t wake up not after that hard hit, at least she shouldn’t, Clem knows she needs to open the door and take Brody out from cellar and make someone tend Brody’s wounds. Clem picks up flashlight that Marlon dropped, it doesn’t work and flickers now and then, but still it’s better than nothing, after a minute of searching the cellar Clem finds ruler and picks it up, she needs it because she heard Marlon close cellar doors. “Clem?” Clem hears Brody’s voice and quickly runs to her. “I’m here.” Clem answers and grabs Brody’s hand. “Watch out for Marlon… Someway he already contacted with Delta… They know you’re here… He thinks that they won’t take us if we’ll give you and Ellie away, but they will.” Brody says and Clem shakes her head. “Save your strength, can you walk?” Clem asks and Brody shakes her head. “I don’t see anything…” Brody complains and Clem nods. “Okay, wait here a second, I’ll be back.” Clem promises and gets up and walks towards cellar doors and fits ruler through gap and opens them, quickly runs down and picks Brody up. “What are you doing?” Brody asks as Clem picks her up. “Someone needs to take a look on that wound, it doesn’t look good.” Clem explains and Brody nods, Clem without much trouble walks outside cellar and hears yells from yard, by the time she get out Brody lost consciousness again. “Where is she?!” Ellie asks she’s mad. “In cellar, she murdered Brody!” Marlon lies and almost everyone gasps, or asks why Clem would do that apart from Sophie, Minnie, Dina and Ellie. Clem walks towards them and Ellie is aiming at Marlon from her pistol. “Bullshit!” Ellie disagrees, she knows that Clem doesn’t kill if she doesn’t have to. “Then go ask Brody huh?” Marlon suggests he still thinks that Brody is dead and still in cellar, then Clem walks close enough to make herself visible. “When she’ll wake up I’m more than glad to ask her what happened.” Clem retorts and Marlon is surprised that Clem walked out. “What the hell happened?!” Sophie asks when she sees Brody. “Take her, and check her wound, she didn’t saw anything when we were in cellar, Marlon could’ve damaged her brain.” Clem explains and everyone looks confused, apart from Minnie, Sophie, Dina and Ellie. When Sophie picks up Brody and takes her inside building, Ruby after her Clem turns herself to rest of people from school. “Sophie asked me to find Brody, she went to talk with Marlon and didn’t came back for twenty minutes, I heard voices from cellar and walked there, then Brody explained me what Marlon want to do with me and Ellie.” Clem starts to explain and Ellie doesn’t lose focus and still aims at Marlon. “He wants to sell us to Delta to save his ass! They already know I’m here, they’ll come here again, because of this asshole, they will want to take you too!” Clem explains and everyone starts blaming Marlon. “Ellie put your gun down.” Clem commands and Ellie looks wants to question her command, but listens to her when she sees serious look on Clem’s face. “Now, Marlon you think I’m threat here?” Clem asks, no one knows where this conversation is going apart from Clem. “Yes, your actions will kill us all.” marlon answers reluctantly. “Ellie, give him your gun.” Clem commands, and Ellie don’t know what to do. “Uh, why?” Ellie asks in confusion. “You’ll see.” Clem answers and Ellie sighs and gives Marlon her gun. “So, if I’m a threat, and you’re so good at protecting your people then get rid of the threat.” Clem says and Marlon without words aims gun at Clem, then she can hear another gasps, but not from Ellie. “Ellie, do something!” Dina begs, but Ellie turns her head to her and smiles. “She won’t die, I’ll be surprised if Marlon will survive.” Ellie says and turns her head back to Marlon and Clem. “Marlon, for fuck’s sake, don’t kill this idiot!” Louis tries to defuse situation, but Marlon is too far in his own madness to hear to any reason at all, Clem doesn’t show any fear, she isn’t scared at all she was at that kind of situation too many times to be scared. “Clem, what are you doing?” Minnie asks, but Clem doesn’t answer, Marlon takes a deep breath and pulls trigger, but misses, Clem is quick and as soon as she noticed that Marlon will pull trigger she dodged bullet and quickly made a run to him and grabbed gun, hit Marlon in the face making him let go of gun which allowed Clem to throw it away. “You’re even shit at shooting people that aren’t armored.” Clem laughs at him as he stumbles back from hit to face, Marlon won’t give up that easily and pulls knife out. “Marlon stop!” Louis begs, but Marlon doesn’t listen and tries to stab Clem which Clem dodges again and taking opportunity that Marlon is turned back to her and kicking him in the knee. “If you want to live, give up, I can do it for whole night.” Clem suggests, but Marlon still isn’t listening and slash Clem, but she grabs his arm before knife can reach her and twists his hand making it impossible to him to do anything. “So… Now, we can talk about other things.” Clem says and with other hand takes knife. “Okay, so apart from what he tried to do to me and Ellie, he knew about Delta, he wanted to sell Minnie and Sophie to them for his safety, and then when he needed to make a deal and bring twins with him he didn’t do it, he threatened them with promises of big group telling that he’ll ‘deal with them’ if they stop nagging you, it was a reason why Delta attacked with that much people.” Clem reveals and Marlon tries to get out from grip of Clem, but fails miserably. “Sophie told us that, Dina confirmed it, this pathetic piece of shit put you in more danger than me and Ellie did.” Clem finishes and everyone can’t believe what they just heard. “Good to know, that we’re so fucking expandable.” Aasim says and Clem lets go of Marlon and drops knife and starts walking away to Minnie. “She’s still a threat…” Marlon states gets up from knees, grabs knife and charge at Clem, she hears footsteps behind her and turns back adrenaline pumps through her veins as she blocks another blow from Marlon she takes knife from his knife and stabs him in the neck, and before she could react to what she had done, everyone was calling her a murderer. “Oh shit…” Clem murmurs under her breath as she takes out the knife. “What the fuck?!” Louis asks as he rushes towards his friend and applies pressure on the wound in Marlon’s neck, but it’s too late. “You didn’t had to kill him!” Aasim screams, and Clem flinches she really didn’t mean to kill Marlon, but he was the one who attacked her. “He fucking attacked me!” Clem reatorts and Mitch reaches for his knife, but by the time he could do that Ellie had her pistol back and she was aiming at Mitch. “Don’t try it.” Ellie threatens and turns her head to Dina. “Stay out of this.” She commands and Dina nods now Violet tries to do something, but Minnie stands in front of Clem. “Violet stop!” Minnie stops Violet. “She killed him for fuck’s sake!” Violet tries to argue. “I know, but he was the one who attacked first.” Minnie tries to calm Violet down. “Clem, go to my room, I’ll get there in a minute.” Minnie commands and Clem walks away it’s first time she regrets she killed someone, almost every time she killed someone it was a bastard who killer, stole, and hurt others, but Marlon was just a idiot that made a couple of mistakes, and Clem killed him without much of a reason, he was attacking her, but she could just disarm him again, but she wasn’t thinking straight then, she expects everyone to hate her, well maybe not Ellie and Dina, but the rest will, she’s sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck Marlon, but Brody had to survive, I liked her character almost immediately, and I'd give Aasim's or Ruby's life for Brody's, but that's my opinion.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I know it's short, but next chapter will have a 'little' more action. And sorry for no updates for longer than usual.

Clem walks inside Minnie’s and Sophie’s room and slams door shut and sits on Minnie’s bed trying to calm herself down, but failing miserably she hits frame of bed as hard as she possibly can pain shooting throughout her hand, but Clem ignores it then the fact that Minnie will be mad at her for killing Marlon hits her, she’s sure that Minnie will break up with her, maybe it’s the reason why she regrets killing Marlon. The longer she thinks about it, maybe she wouldn’t be in that situation if she didn’t gave Maron Ellie’s gun, but she was too curious if Marlon will do it, or not. Clem is too focused on looking on her hands that are covered with Marlon’s blood to see, or hear that door are being open. “So…” Minnie says startling Clem and making her jump a little. “I’m sorry.” Clem says with a weak voice and Minnie sits next to her. “You don’t have to I’m not mad, you had a multiple reasons to kill him earlier and you didn’t, you killed him when your life were in danger, but sadly not everybody sees it that way.” Minnie says and Clem head raises up when she hears that she isn’t mad. “You’re not mad?” Clem asks for confirmation and Minnie nods. “What happened when I left?” Clem asks and Minnie sighs. “Well, everybody, apart from me, Ellie and Dina, blamed you for what happened, Louis is broken down, and they’re scared that Delta will come for us and they blame you for it too… If they won’t see it the way they should everything will go to shit, they will want to throw you out, and I’m not worried about it, because Ellie and Dina will be with you, but Delta is what worries me, they already know you’re here and will want to take revenge for what happened on that boat.” Minnie explains and Clem sighs. “It is mine fault, I commanded Ellie to give Marlon gun, I told him to get rid of threat if he thought I’m one…” Clem blames herself and Minnie lays her arm around her shoulders not caring for blood on Clem’s hands. “No one told him to charge at you with a knife when you turned your back to him.” Minnie argues and Clem shrugs. “Well no, but if Delta will come here, and they’ll throw me out, promise me you’ll tell them where we went if they’ll leave you all in peace, and if they won’t throw me out… I’ll find a way to make them go away.” Clem says and Minnie shakes her head. “No, I won’t let them hurt you.” Minnie states and Clem smiles, she really loves how Minnie wants to risk her own life for her. “You. Will. They won’t kill me, and they will let you live in peace, and if I’ll be here when they’ll come here I’ll challenge Lilly for one on one fight, if I win her people will give up and walk away, and if she wins… It’d fight to death, so yeah.” Clem says and Minnie just sighs, she knows that she won’t win this. “And if her people won’t give up, or she won’t agree on my terms I’ll kill them all.” Clem promises and Minnie shakes her head. “She’ll come here with more than three people, you know that?” Minnie asks and Clem nods. “If you want to make sure no one will try anything stupid then go, I’ll just lay down, and with luck maybe sleep.” Clem says and lays down, Minnie does the same. “I hoped you’d stay.” Clem says and Minnie feels wet hands around her waist, but she doesn’t say anything her jacket already had to be washed a long time ago. Before Minnie could realize Clem was already asleep, which surprises her she thought that Clem won’t be able to sleep, but maybe fighting is more tiring than she thought, she doesn’t like killing not even walkers and she never killed a living person, no one actually discovered where the school is which made possible not having to kill anyone and only Delta, Clem and Ellie discovered where school is, but apart from them no one when the adults left them Marlon took down every sign telling where school is, the time passed and Minnie falled asleep too. As time passed everyone mourned Marlon apart from Sophie, she stayed in room with Brody and Ruby went to yard and saw what Clem had done and she blames her too, Ellie tried to convince people that it ain’t Clem’s fault, but she failed and gave up, she won’t be able to convince them until rest will understand what Marlon did. “What are thinking about?” Dina asks as she sees the expression on Ellie’s face. “Nothing.” Ellie lies and Dina sees it. “If it’s about Clem then you don’t need to worry, she’ll manage it.” Dina says and Ellie sighs. “I know, but it still doesn’t make me worry any less.” Ellie answers and Dina doesn’t say anything after that, and finally they reach Ellie’s room and as soon as they get inside Ellie notices the mischievous smirk on her face. “Oh, I know what you want to do, but not today.” Ellie immediately stops Dina. “Why?” Dina questions and Ellie shrugs. “I’m not in a mood.” Ellie explains and Dina smiles. “I can change that.” Dina offers and Ellie shakes her head. “No, let’s just cuddle tonight, but when we’ll get to Jackson we’ll have time for ourselves, I ain’t leavin’ again.” Ellie promises and Dina nods. “You better keep your promise, or I’ll make you.” Dina says and lays with Ellie on her bed, Ellie holds Dina by waist and both of them tries to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Minnie wakes up when she feels that Clem jolts up from sleep and starts to breathe heavily and starts to sob quietly.”Clem, what’s wrong?” Minnie asks as she sits up and can see that Clem isn’t in a mood to talk, so she wraps her arm around her shoulder. “You can tell me, you know that?” Minnie says and Clem nods and sniffs. “Yeah… I know.” Clem answers, get a little bit closer to Minnie and puts her head on Minnie’s shoulder. "I'll tell you someday what it was about, but when I'll be ready," Clem promises, her nightmare was about McCarrol ranch again. “I have to go to Marlon’s funeral… He wasn’t always an asshole.” Minnie says, she doesn’t like that idea, but she knows that she has to. “Okay… I’ll put myself together and check on Brody, did Sophie came back, or did she stay at Brody’s room?” Clem asks and Minnie shakes her head. “She didn’t come back, probably stayed at Brody’s and waited to check is she’ll wake up,” Minnie says and Clem nods again. “If they will want me to go away, tell me, I’ll put up with it, I won’t stay here if everyone will be scared of me,” Clem says and Minnie shakes her head. “No, I won’t let them,” Minnie argues. “I’ll find a way to still meet with you,” Clem promises and Minnie shakes her head. “Then I’m coming with you.” Minnie states and Clem raises her head from Minnie’s shoulder. “No, you aren’t, I would take you, but Delta is still in the area, and they could attack us, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if you would end up hurt,” Clem says and Minnie looks at Clem. “You promise to come back if they’ll throw you out?” Minnie asks and Clem nods. “Yes, I’ll try to come back as soon as possible,” Clem promises and Minnie smiles. “Okay..." Minnie agrees reluctantly and gets up. "I need to go, or they'll start without me," Minnie says and starts to walk off, but Clem catches up to her, turns her around and kisses her quickly, Minnie is surprised by Clem's actions, but she quickly melts into the kiss. "Now you can go," Clem lets go of Minnie and walks off herself to Brody's room, she noticed earlier that night that Ruby walked out from that room and Clem is pretty sure that it ain't her's room. Clem knocks lightly on the door and waits for a response and when she gains none she decides to say something. "Can I come in?" Clem asks and after a short while, she hears footsteps from behind doors and after another while they open. "Hi..." Clem welcomes with a weak voice, she just sees how tired and broken Sophie looks. "Hey," Sophie replies and there's a moment of awkward silence. "Can I come in?" Clem asks and Sophie nods and walks back into the room, Clem walks in and sees Brody laying on her bed still unconscious bandage on her head covers almost half of her head, and on a shelf next to bed lay medical supplies. "They told me you killed Marlon in cold blood," Sophie says and Clem shakes her head, she can't believe they told Sophie she killed Marlon in cold blood, it was self-defense. "Not exactly, I did kill him, but it was in self-defense, he pulled a knife on me after he almost shot me and after I disarmed him, but I made two mistakes, I turned my back on him and I dropped knife right next to him." Clem clarifies and Sophie slowly nods in understatement and sits on a chair next to Brody's bed and holds her hand slowly caressing the top of it with her thumb. "Bastard deserved it... It's his blood?" Sophie asks and Clem looks at her hands, she just now realized she didn't wash it off. "Yeah, I forgot to wash it off yesterday... Or maybe today, not sure." Clem replies and Sophie points to the shelf. "There should be water and a bowl with blooded bandages, wash it off if you want to." Sophie offers and Clem nods, she walks to the shelf and grabs a bottle and opens it and starts to wash her hands above the metal bowl in which, as Sophie said, are blooded bandages, as water pours it's way inside bowl through Clem's hands, water is already crimson red. "How is it?" Sophie asks and Clem doesn't exactly know what she means. "How it is to?" Clem asks for clarification. "How is it to kill someone?" Sophie asks and Clem starts to wonder on the answer and in midtime she sits on bed on the opposite side of the room, Clem sees it that it depends on a person she kills, she doesn't know how it feels to kill an innocent person, she never killed one, she ain't exactly innocent herself, but to comparison to persons she killed she's an angel. "Depends on a person you kill, I don't know how to explain how it feels to kill an innocent, most person I killed were kidnapping, raping, robbing, killing bastards that even I were surprised that they still walked on this earth, but when I knew that they won't be able to hurt anyone anymore, I felt some kind of relief," Clem explain as good as she can and Sophie nods in understatement. "How is she?" Clem asks and Sophie breaths in deeply. "Ruby told me she'll probably wake up today, but we... We suspect her brain might be damaged." Sophie says trying not to cry, she cried too much in her opinion last night, just the look of Sophie almost crying hurts Clem and makes her feel regret that she didn't stop Marlon from hitting Brody, maybe she could do something, but was too slow. "I'm sorry..." Clem apologizes and Sophie shakes her head. "Don't be, I should be thanking you that came down to that cellar if you wouldn't and he would still hit her we would need to get rid of a walker, I much more prefer for her to live than to die. I think that I heard Ruby and Mitch talking earlier about voting to throw you out, but you should know that I'll support you." Sophie promises and Clem smiles she feels a lot better, but she can hear that Sophie doesn't. "Thank you, it means a lot to me." Clem thanks and then before Sophie can tell anything Minnie opens the door with much force, she seems pissed, and like she's on edge of crying.  


Minnie walks outside dorms and as soon as Mitch spots her he puts his hands on his hips. "Was it good to sleep with a murderer?" Mitch asks and Minnie rolls her eyes. "None of your business, besides I only told her to wait in my room, never told her to sleep with me, even if there's another bed free in my room." Minnie retorts, she doesn't admit to anything, because Violet is there, and she still doesn't know and she wants to tell it when the occasion will be better. "Yeah, sure-" Mitch wants to argue but is cut off by Ruby. "Can't you respect the funeral?" Ruby asks viably pissed and Minnie mutters apology under her nose. "Tenn, go on," Violet says and Tenn gets near Marlon's grave with a drawing in his hands. "Marlon, you always wanted us to be safe, so I drew it for you." Tenn places a drawing of Marlon with a bow in his hand, standing in front of every person in school apart from Clem, Ellie, and Dina, now Violet steps forward, it seems like she'll do some kind of speech which is unusual since Violet ain't exactly a social butterfly. "Marlon... I can't. Not for him. Someone else needs to do it." Violet gives up and Mitch scoffs. "Bitch," Mitch says and Louis crosses his arms. "Dude, no." Louis retorts and Mitch seems even more pissed. "He was your best friend for fuck's sake," Mitch says and Louis shakes his head. "I can't do it," Louis says and walks off, Minnie already knows where this will be going. "It's all because of Clem if she wouldn't come here everything would be alright." Mitch states and Minnie scoffs and Aasim crosses his arms. "Yeah, maybe for you, but everyone that was captured would fight in a war," Aasim says and Mitch rolls his eyes. "Clem needs to go, we all agreed yesterday that we'll vote today after the funeral, and it seems like it's over," Mitch says and Minnie shakes her head. "No, she fucking freed our friends, rescued our asses, patched you up, and she's the only person that can protect this school and you all are willing to even vote to throw her out?" Minnie asks her voice is filled with rage, pokes Mitch's chest, and Mitch nods. "Why you protect her so much? You love her, or what?" Violet asks, she expected that Minnie would shake her head, but Minnie nods almost immediately. "Yes, I fucking do!" Minnie confirms with a raised voice and can see hurt in Violet's eyes, but she doesn't do anything. "We voted for it yesterday, only Tenn didn't want to vote and we knew that you wouldn't agree, Sophie wouldn't either, but it still would change anything, we're voting, you like it, or not." Mitch states and Minnie takes a deep breath and clutches her fist to the point where it turns white, but she keeps her calm. "I'll go tell Clem, and Sophie needs to vote too," Minnie says with a given up voice and slowly walks off. "I'll go to Louis," Tenn says and walks off too.  


"What happened?!" Clem asks as she sees the rage and the tears in Minnie's eyes. "I tried Clem... I tried..." Minnie says on edge of tears. "What happened?" Clem asks with a calmer voice and Minnie takes a deep breath. "I was at the funeral... Mitch told it was all your fault... They decided to vote to throw you out. Now, I'm here to tell you and to get Sophie, you need to vote too." Minnie explains and Clem shakes her head, she was sure that it'll happen. "Sophie just told me, she heard them last night," Clem says and Minnie just shrugs. "I don't want you to go..." Minnie sniffles and Clem gets up embracing her girlfriend. "I know, but it ain't over yet." Clem tries to cheer Minnie up, but she knows that she'll get kicked out. "And I might've told by accident about us," Minnie admits and Clem just smiles. "The sooner the better," Clem says and lets go of Minnie. "Soph, we need to go..." Minnie says and Sophie looks at Brody with a worried look. "Don't worry, I'll stay with her," Clem promises and Sophie recently let go of Brody and walked out with Minnie. Sisters walk insider corridors and Minnie sighs and try to calm herself down from sudden break down in Brody's room, it doesn't seem that she cried, no a single sign of it, but there's still heavy breathing, and just before they reach the door they stop. "Are you ready?" Sophie asks and Minnie nods calming her breathing down. Twins come out, everyone is already there, Louis and Tenn too. Voting was quick... Only Sophie, Minnie, Tenn voted to not throw Clem out the rest... It's a different story, they're left with no person to protect the school, and no leader, someone will need to step up, and as soon as Minnie heard the result of voting she stormed off, Sophie was still trying to convince them to change their minds, but to no avail, Tenn stayed with Sophie. Minnie walks inside Brody's room again, but now she doesn't stop tears from coming she just embrace them as it's a normal feeling for her, but that's quite not true, she rarely was sad, or cried, she usually was furious if something happened, but not now, and Clem sees her break down... Again, Minnie just throws her arms around Clem's neck when she sees her. "So I have to go..." Clem says, she's on edge of crying too, because of leaving Minnie, she felt something more than friendship for the first time in her goddamned life and she has to leave it for some time after only three days. "Yes... Everyone voted to throw you apart from me, Sophie and Tenn, but they decided that you need to go now." Minnie confirms and Clem nods, she knew it would happen, right after she killed Marlon and after reaction of others, she was sure it would happen. "I... Need to pack my things and wake Ellie and Dina, remember if Delta will come looking for us, you tell them to leave you all in peace if you tell them, and if they'll still attack, go north, after few days you should reach a city, Prescott, most of the people know me there, tell them that you know me and they'll let you inside, but don't expect much more." Clem advises and Minnie nods. "Try not to die," Minnie says and Clem giggles through sobs. "I promise." Clem replies and lets go of Minnie. "I'll meet you at the gates, you can expect that almost everyone will be there," Minnie informs, Clem nods and walks off, firstly to Minnie's room for her notebook and hair tie, she ties her hair and later goes to her and Ellie's room, or nobody's now, Clem walks inside the room she finds Ellie and Dina still sleeping is Clem is sure of one thing that couple sleeping has in common is that you could shout right next to them and they would still be asleep, Clem looks around room and sees that she needs to pack notebook and guitar, she actually doesn't have much more in her backpack apart from one can of food that she doesn't even know if it isn't spoiled by now. After packing herself she puts her backpack on and goes closer to bed on which Ellie and Dina sleep and she knows only one way to wake Ellie or Dina up and she also knows that if she'll do that on Dina Ellie will definitely murder her, so she slaps Ellie across her face. "What the fuck!?" Ellie screams and as Clem expected this Dina only turned on another side when she felt that Ellie left the bed, she fell from bed when Clem hit her, leaving a red mark on her face that Ellie rubs. "Clem, for fuck's sake, it's what? Six in the morning?" Ellie asks amused that Clem slapped her, but she did it once, or twice. "It's much later, about eight," Clem says she doesn't really know if it's true, but maybe that'll calm Ellie down a little. "Plus, I got kicked out for killing Marlon," Clem says and offers help to still laying Ellie, and she accepts it. "How?" Ellie asks and starts to wake Dina up. "Well, basically they voted yesterday, to vote today to kick me out, they just made their job a little bit harder, they already knew there were more votes to kick me out, Minnie will be waiting for us at main gates," Clem explains and Ellie nods in confusion as Dina yawns and stretches. "Why you're waking me up?" Dina asks sleepy voice. "We need to go, plus Clem is going with us." Ellie explains and Dina reluctantly gets up and rubs her face. "Why?" Dina asks and Ellie sighs. "They voted to kick her out, because of that bastard she killed." Ellie clarifies and in mid-time, Clem threw Dina a water bottle. "We still have to pick some of the supplies they owe us." Ellie says and Clem sighs deeply and quickly reaches to her backpack and takes her pistol out and puts it behind her belt. "Why you pulled your pistol out?" Dina asks in confusion, Ellie knows why and does the same. "Firstly, Delta might be around and after I killed their leader they might not be too keen to give us those supplies." Clem explains and Dina shakes her head. "And threaten them again?" Dina asks again and Clem shrugs. "I don't want to, but we at least have to take horses, you and Ellie on one, and I'll get the other one, maybe some food for the road," Clem explains and Dina sighs. "Let's hope they'll give us it without too much of a fuss." Dina says under her breath and gets up from the bed and picks up Ellie's backpack and hands it to her. They walk out from room and make their way to the cellar, there are some food they don't care if someone catches them, they find there weapons and ammo too, and take three rifles and some ammo for it, not much and if kids were taught how to use them it'd too much to protect school, there's weapons for at least twenty men not counting rifles and ammo that Clem, Ellie, and Dina took. "So, what now just getting to horses and riding out and then trying not to get shot on our way to Jackson... How fucking great." Ellie complains and Dina starts whispering to her ear, and Clem is glad to not hear that she almost can feel that Ellie beaming red. Clem is walking out first rifle in her hands just like Ellie's, only Dina is keeping it on the strap, not holding it, then Sophie and Minnie approaches them just before they can reach horses, all three of them can feel the stares from rest of the group, grip on Ellie's rifle becomes tighter, just from habit. "So, this is goodbye?" Sophie asks and Clem shrugs. "I guess so, but I'll try to come back here and to not give any of you hopes, I'll be just visiting Minnie." Clem says and Sophie nods. "Fine by me, I stepped up to be a leader, I want to make this all work, and managed to convince everyone to let you take supplies that Marlon promised you, but I see that you already picked them up." Sophie comments and Clem smiles. "Yeah, but from curiosity, how the hell you managed to convince Mitch to let you be a leader?" Clem asks, she could saw that Mitch won't let anyone rule over him too much, but is amused to see that Sophie stood up, she seemed like she was broken when Clem entered Brody's room, and now Sophie is a group leader. "Managed to shut Mitch up." Sophie quickly says, but Minnie wants to say even more. "If you could see him when Sophie pulled him aside to talk to him, it was priceless, he came back with dropped head and didn't want to talk to anybody for a while." Minnie explains and Sophie rolls her eyes. "We'll go get horses ready." Dina interrupts as she sees an impatience in Minnie's eyes and she and Ellie walk away, and Sophie understood what she meant. "Finally." Minnie exclaims and Clem smiles, and Clem notices the intentions of Minnie when she starts leaning towards her, and she doesn't stop her, actually she grabs her by the neck just to make things quicker and after a couple of seconds, they move away. "Please, stay safe." Minnie begs and Clem nods. "I promise, hair won't fall from my head." Clem promises and both of them walks to horses that Ellie untied from a tree, she and Dina already sitting on their horse, as Clem sits in the saddle of hers. "Bye." Clem says her goodbye and her, Ellie, and Dina ride outside the gates. They ride through the forest, Clem riding behind Ellie as she has the map and already knows how they'll make it to Jackson, Clem wants to see this city that supposedly is at least twice bigger than Prescott if not more, and she wants to meet Joel, Ellie said much about him, which only made Clem more curious about Ellie's father figure. Dina is holding Ellie by her waist laying her head on her shoulders, her eyes closed trying to rest more, at Delta she got not as much sleep as she got in Jackson and it was hard to adapt, and she didn't adapt through whole month always being half asleep on her lookout duties, but now when she's sure she's safe she'll gladly try to catch more sleep. "How long will be riding?" Clem asks and Ellie thinks about the answer. "A couple of days depends on how much trouble we'll meet on the way. " Ellie answers and Clem nods in understatement, they don't talk after this, Clem just admires nature around them, red and yellow leaves laying on the ground crunching from time to time when horse steps on them. Everything is annoyingly peaceful wind whistle through the forest. "How much ammo did we take?" Ellie asks, Clem was picking up ammo, then gave it equally to her friends. "If we wouldn't miss we could kill sixty guys, but I don't think Delta will send that much after us." Clem answers and Ellie nods. "Could you two shut up? I'm trying to sleep here." Dina asks and Clem smirks and rolls her eyes as Ellie agrees, Dina can be grumpy when she's tired unless she's working in the infirmary she's too preoccupied with work. Clem can't remember the last time she didn't have to think about danger, she's aware of Delta that might be around, but she doesn't pay much mind to it... That was her mistake... Shot rang through the forest about an hour later, Clem felt excruciating pain a little under her ribs penetrating through her back, then another shot right in her horses head killing it instantly and sending Clem to the ground and luckily she was thrown from her horse right to a tree that made shooting her impossible, but she could feel warm liquid on her stomach, she knows that she won't survive, not without proper care right there and right now, and as Dina could do it they don't have equipment, and even if they had, they don't have a second horse, and riding on one in three persons is next to impossible unless it's children that are riding it. Ellie as soon as she heard shot she jumped down from horse making Dina fall with her to a tree next to which Clem lays applying pressure on her stomach, pistol in the other, her rifle in the snow, constant rain of bullets hitting trees they hide behind. "Clem, you alright?!" Ellie asks as she grabs her rifle and readies it. "No, I'm fucking not!" Clem screams back. "They shot me... Right under my ribs, I won't make it without proper care!" Clem instantly admits it, she won't make it, tears are starting to fill her eyes, as well as Ellie's. "You will, we just have to..." Ellie denies what Clem said, she can't lose her too. "Ellie, as much as I hate it, you two have to leave me! Dina isn't much of a fighter, we're heavily outnumbered, I'm wounded... But I can still fight... I'll cover you, and you'll take a horse and run away... Live a good life, and don't come back for me!" Clem commands, and Ellie shakes her head, not listening to Dina that knows the situation, she already knows Clem won't make, she could save her, but she doesn't have the equipment. "No, Clem please, just try..." Ellie begs, her vision is blurry from tears, Clem takes a deep breath, even if it causes a lot of pain to her. "Run! Please!" Clem begs and Ellie reluctantly and weakly nods her head, Dina hates to see it, she actually liked Clem, even if she didn't know her for a long time, but before they could get horses ready Clem spoke up again. "Do you have any cloth, t-shirts, or something?!" Clem asks and Ellie nods, Clem needs it to put pressure over her wound, to be able to use both of her hands and maybe make a run for her rifle and then a lodge she spotted not that far from here, Ellie throws one of her flannel shirts to Clem and she rips it to make a provisional bandage and puts it on her wound now she's able to use both of her hands, she tries to ignore pain in her stomach as well as the fast bleeding, she won't live for much longer thirty minutes at most and if Ellie wouldn't had a cloth with her it would be even faster. Clem nods to Ellie and starts shooting when shooters from probably Delta didn't shoot that often only when they saw movement, and the moment Clem started shooting Ellie and Dina mounted their horse and ran away, pushing the horse to its edge, if there's something that Delta did properly is training horses to not panic. As Clem shot she counted at least five or six men, that took cover when she started shooting, she killed one of them when she took them by surprise and when she saw that Ellie and Dina were running away she hided her pistol quickly and made a run for her rifle and didn't stop just ran to lodge she spotted earlier and as soon as she reached door she felt something hit outside side of her thigh, but there was no shooting she opened door, and luckily she didn't hear any walkers, she looked at her thigh and she saw arrow sticking out of it, adrenaline making it painless, she didn't even feel much of a pain in her abdomen, or she lost too much blood already. Clem quickly made her way to the first room and saw that window there would make her see if any Delta soldier would come her way without risking what's left of her much. She pulled the bolt of her rifle and took a quick look through the window and saw one of the soldiers making his way to the door while other one supported him, Clem quickly shot the one that was supporting soldier and took her pistol out and shot another one in his neck not killing him, but neutralizing him, and then five other men started running from woods, she tried to shoot her pistol, as it shoots quicker than bolt-action rifle, but it jammed. "Dammit!" Clem cursed and threw pistol away and took cover pulling bolt again and making ready to start shooting again, but she saw that another room had a window on the same side of wall, so she made her way there and quickly leaned out taking her shots, pulling bolt and again, she didn't miss once, but there were only four bullets left in magazine for five men, one of them survived, and made his way inside before Clem could reload, she was already feeling weak, and now she had to kill an armed man. Clem threw her rifle at a soldier but her throw was too weak to make him any damage, but he did drop his weapon. "Lilly wants you alive, but you killed one of our best men, you won't survive this." Man teases and Clem flips him off. "End it." Clem encourages him and he nods and charges at her pinning her to a wall, she's too weak to dodge or do anything at all, but when she sees a knife behind Man's belt she makes use of her last bits of energy, take his knife and sticks it in his ear, killing man immediately, he falls to the side, knife still in his head, Clem falls too, and she doesn't even try to move, she doesn't have energy too, then she looks down and sees her jacket and henley are done for, as well as her cargo pants, then her vision becomes blurry and Clem just closes her eyes, then she hears someone kick the door open, but she doesn't even have the energy to open them, then darkness consumes her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is a little bit longer, because I want to recompensate for the previous chapter that were a little bit shorter, and that I'll be writing at least three one-shots, so updates might be a little less frequent.


	14. Chapter 14

(About ten minutes or so before a fight between Clem and Delta.)  
Luke wasn't that far from school, he agreed to meet up with Javi that day in particular, he needed to escape Delta's ship if he wouldn't Javi would start attacking in a war between Delta and New Frontier, the start of it was completely Delta's initiative, it began about two, or three months ago when Javi got a word that an outpost of New Frontier got attacked, but there weren't as much bodies as people on outpost, Javi, Luke, Tripp and John, John was a great friend of Javi, almost always talking and laughing, gone to check what happened, Tripp was going with him since Eleanor was there, when they were there it was only two bodies both of them were almost completely ripped apart after walkers started eating them, Javi knew those people, both of them had families, children, wife, and now they can be barely recognized, when they got rid of walkers and loaded bodies on a truck in which they came there, they noticed a fire in the distance, or smoke to be honest, and Javi decided to check if it was the people that killed, and when they were close they noticed a huge cages with Javi's people in it, Javi decided to reason with them, they came out from hiding spot and aimed their rifles at them, maybe not to good when they try to reason with them, but there were five bandits whereas there were only four of them, Javi didn't even say anything before shot rang through camp, hitting John right in neck, then it was hell, luckily no one else from New Frontier got hit, and bandits were dead, but John didn't make it, after that man from Delta came to Richmond and said it means war.

Luke shakes his head trying not to think about that fight, luckily John's death didn't affect Javi in any way, well he wasn't himself couple days after that, but some time later he came back to his normal attitude. Luke had a fire, not big, but enough to warm himself, he was waiting for Javi, he sat on the ground for a whole night, but it's better than the shit he needed to do in Delta. It was morning about nine, but he didn't pay much attention to the hour. After another ten minutes he heard engines, he grabbed his rifle, who knows it's not Delta? But Luke was relieved to see one truck and van with New Frontier's markings, from a van, came out Javi and children of his late brother, Gabriel, and Mariana, it's almost every day that Gabe is around Javi, but it's new to see Mari with him. From a truck cames out Eleanor, and man Luke does recognize grey long beard and hairs reaching his neck, and a red and white hat and an eye-patch. Kenny, he thought that he died after that crash, that walkers got him, but he didn't saw him, Clem, or Jane after that, well he saw Clem a couple of hours ago, but it seems nothing can kill him. "Welcome to my camp, as you see I got... A fire. Nothing more." Luke welcomes and jokes, and Javi gets closer as well as his niece, nephew, and Kenny. "How it went?" Kenny asks, he knows about action that Luke was pulling off, Luke just reaches for his bag and hands Javi a file of maps, and documents, maps of Delta's outposts and their base, documents about some of the routines that are on every outpost. "It went well, but an escape... Oh boy, it was 'fun'." Luke says and Javi looks at him. "What do you mean?" Javi asks for clarification, kids are eating something, probably not listening to the whole conversation between them. "Well, yesterday I went with a girl, Dina, to chop wood, she needed to escape too, so I let her go with me, but then two other girls, apparently her girlfriend, and her friend, got knife on Dina's neck and other one aimed at me, they came there to rescue people from school Lilly 'recruited' from. We agreed on getting them back and running the hell out of there, but everything went to shit when a man attacked us one of us shot him, and everyone on the ship knew about us, we ran down and one girl, not an adult, managed to pin five trained soldiers and escape, if not her all of us might be dead. Oh and that girl is someone we all know here. Clementine." Luke explains and he says the part about Clem like it's nothing, but he sees the reaction of Kenny, Javi and kids, this managed to get their attention. "Where is she?!" Kenny asks and Luke gets up. "Not sure, but probably at school, we all went there after the escape," Luke explains and Javi just smiles. Not much time passes, a couple of seconds to be honest and shots start ranging through the forest, they know they don't shoot at them, but kids still were scared. "Get up." Kenny commands and kids do what he said. "Delta for sure... Wait. It can be Clem who is in trouble?" Kenny asks and reluctantly Luke nods, maybe it's nothing, but Clem could be in this woods right now, getting shot at, Kenny didn't waste much time and started to run there, Luke, Gabe, Mari, Eleanor and Javi behind him.

When they were close to the source of shooting they saw that it was only five people aiming at the lodge from which another shots rang out hitting four of men, after that nothing apart from last man running inside the lodge. "Now," Javi says and his group starts walking towards the lodge, they can hear some muffled voices from inside and then something hitting something and after that, they're already inside, and they see a girl, with a cap on 'D' on it, pool of blood on her shirt, and next to her a man with a knife in his ear. "Clem!" Kenny says and runs up, and checks her pulse, she's alive, Kenny is already happy, but she's unconscious, Eleanor quickly runs to her and pulls her backpack from her back and takes off Clem backpack, jacket, part of a flannel shirt and raises her henley. The wound in her stomach is bleeding, but a part of the flannel shirt applied pressure on the wound preventing Clem from bleeding out when Gabe sees Clem he's terrified. I'll go search the bodies." Gabe says and runs out, everyone knows to leave him when he's in that state. "I can only keep her alive for two hours or so, I don't have supplies to patch her up properly," Eleanor exclaims and Kenny shakes his head. "Luke, you said there's school around here, can we carry her there? Do they have the supplies we need?" Kenny asks and not knowing what to do Luke nods. "Will she survive?" Mari asks and Eleanor shrugs. "Of course she will." Javi calms down his niece, he knows she and Clem had a good relationship. Eleanor started to clean, and bandage Clem's wound and pulled her shirt down. "Pick her up, we'll carry her to the van, and drive behind me, I know where the school is," Luke says, Kenny picks Clem up and they start slowly walking towards the van, they don't want to hurt Clem more than she already is. Gabe runs behind them with a piece of paper in his hand. "Javi, it's important," Gabe exclaims and Javi turns his head to him. "Wait a minute, when she'll be in the van, I'll read it okay?" Javi asks and Gabe nods and puts a piece of paper in his pocket.

When hey reached the place where they left their vehicles Kenny quickly put Clem inside van he revs it and drives behind the truck in which Luke, Javi, Mari, and Gabe sits, Eleanor is in the van with him and Clem, she's making sure they'll get to school.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for 1000 hits!

"What does she have that I don't?" Violet asks, it was about an hour and ten minutes since Clem, Ellie, and Dina left, and Minnie already misses Clem, not only because Violet is annoying as hell since Minnie admitted that she loves Clem, maybe she thinks it's love too fast, but she just hopes it is, but she misses her because she's sure that Clem could help of finding way to make Violet understand why she doesn't want to be with her. "To be honest? It's not about how she looks, it's about that we were together for three months? And almost from a start, we argued, the first day us together and we already started arguing, it wasn't serious, but after a month everyone here thought we're in a toxic relationship. Vi, you may still have feelings for me, but I don't." Minnie finally says, and Violet just crosses her arms. "Bullshit," Violet mutters and Minnie sighs. "Vi, we broke up a couple of times by now and we always end up together again, but I don't think it's healthy for me or you," Minnie says, she still wants to be friends with Violet, but it'll be awkward as hell for some time if she succeeds. "Well, if you see it that way, then be it," Violet says and walks out from Minnie's room. The last hour was hard, not only Clem left, but Brody woke up and confirmed everything Clem said, which made some of the people are feeling guilty, but still didn't change their minds, but Sophie still tries to convince them to let it go, but twins realize it won't be easy since Clem killed Marlon.

Another ten minutes passed and Minnie was sitting outside with Tenn, he was drawing, everything would be perfect if Clem would sit next to her, whisper in her ear that everything will be okay, everyone is terrified since Brody confirmed that Lilly and Delta might look for Clem in school, another thing Mitch blames Clem for. Not long after Minnie heard roaring of an engine, no one close had cars... Except for Delta... "Tenn, run to dorms and no matter what don't walk out." Minnie commands and in meantime Will yelled to everybody walk out on the yard. "What the hell is going on?" Louis asks and Sophie quickly gives everybody bows. "Don't shoot unless we'll know it's Delta," Sophie says, she's stressed, almost everybody goes for a cover, but she stays out in the open, she's the leader now, and she'll talk to whoever is driving to school. 

"It's here?" Javi asks they're in front of some sort of gate. "Yep, you drive, I'll go open gates, they saw me once, so maybe they won't shoot me on sight," Luke says and gets out from the truck and gets closer to gates, he takes a deep breath in, and pulls gates to open them and when they do he sees a not so tall redhead with a bow in her hands, arrow pulled and she aims at Luke, he can see how much her hands are shaking, but he still raises his hands up. "We aren't with Delta." Luke tries to calm the redhead down. "Delta attacked Clem, she's really hurt, we need medical supplies or she'll die," Luke informs and sees the shocked expression on Sophie's face, not long after she puts down her bow. "We'll give whatever you'll need. People come out!" Sophie calls out and everyone comes out from cover. Luke gestures towards Javi to drive in, behind him Kenny. "They're with me," Luke says and Minnie walks next to Sophie, she wants to ask what the hell is going on, but then she sees that Clem is being carried out from the van, and Minnie runs to her. "What the fuck happened?!" Minnie demands an answer from an older man, with an eye-patch on his eye that is carrying Clem. "I would like to know." Kenny answers and Ruby runs up to them. "Where we can put her?" Kenny asks quickly, he feels the blood of Clem on his hands, and Ruby gestures to go behind her, Kenny and Eleanor follow, now Minnie walks up to another man, a Mexican it would seem. "Do you know what the hell happened to her?!" Minnie asks, she's worried as hell, but she wants to know and as soon as she will, she's going straight where Clem is. "I wish I'd know kid, all I know is that Delta wants to get rid of her and she fought with them, she got shot in the stomach," Javi explains, and Minnie nods, then she runs to catch up to Ruby and two other people. 

Kenny walks behind the short redhead, his arms hurt from carrying Clem, but he will do anything he possibly can to save her. "Just hold on." He whispers, about five seconds later he hears footsteps echoing through corridors and not long after a tall redhead catches up to them. "How's she?" Minnie asks Kenny and he shrugs. "I don't know, ask her she's a doctor," Kenny says and nods towards Eleanor, before Minnie talks to her she takes a closer look on Clem, she's pale, she could be mistaken for a walker, but Minnie is also sure she sees that she breathes, but it's weak and not rhythmical, they reach Clem's room and Kenny lays her on her bed, Eleanor told Ruby to bring something to clean the wound and stitch it, Kenny just couldn't talk, he just sat on bed on opposite side of room. "Will she make it?" Minnie asks, she's on edge of crying, but she tries not to cry. "I'm not sure, she lost a lot of blood, and even if it'll be some time before she'll be able to move," Eleanor responds honestly and now Minnie regrets she even asked. "Can you hold her? I need to take this arrow out." Eleanor asks and Minnie nods and grabs Clem by shoulders and holds her tight when Eleanor pull arrow out, Clem winces in pain and tries to move but she can't, a minute after Ruby comes back with everything that Eleanor asked for, and Eleanor didn't waste a while, she immediately started to firstly work on Clem's wound on her thigh, she cleaned it, and it didn't need stitches since it wasn't deep so Eleanor only bandaged it, now for the fun part, her wound in stomach. "Bullet went through, it didn't hit any intestines, so that's good, but it bleeds fast, hold her again would you?" Eleanor asks and Minnie is terrified her hands are shaking, and luckily Ruby notices it and she holds Clem. When Clem started screaming Minnie left the room it was too much for her, she could only hear muffled screams of her love and she couldn't do anything to help her ease the pain, then tears started rolling down her cheeks. "Are- are you okay?" A girl asks and sits next to her. "No, I'm not." Minnie answers and the girl nods. "My name's Mariana, what's yours?" Mari asks and Minnie looks up at her. "Minerva." She answers not much caring for what Mariana has to say. "I'm sorry if some of the people I drove with won't be really keen to talk with you all, they all are worried about Clem, right now they're sitting at one of the tables in the courtyard, they don't talk with anyone, and no one talks with them." Mari apologies and Minnie nods. "Do you know how is she?" Mari asks and Minnie shrugs. "This doctor said she's not sure if Clem will make it, and it's our fault," Minnie admits, if they wouldn't throw Clem out, she would be fine and now, from all Minnie knows, she can die, Mariana doesn't say anything, she just sits with Minnie, peaceful quiet sometimes intruded by Minnie's sobs, but Mari didn't question it, she just sat with her waiting for Eleanor to come out.


	16. Chapter 16

Time went on slowly, Mari left about ten minutes later, leaving Minnie with her thoughts, Kenny left the room too, he didn't say anything Minnie said to him where are the rest of group he came to school and he just walked off. Her eyes are all red and puffy from crying, she cried this day more than in last year, her thoughts are interrupted from time to time by screams from the room behind her, she knows who is screaming and it's scaring her, the only thing she hopes for now is that Clem will be okay, she heard some footsteps from corridor to her left then she saw Sophie. "How are you?" Sophie asks her voice is filled with concern. "Not too good," Minnie mutters and Sophie sits next to her and puts her arm around her sister to comfort her. "Everything will be fine, she's tough," Sophie reassures, but Minnie doesn't know what to believe. "If she'll die it'll be my fault," Minnie says and Sophie shakes her head. "I was the leader when we kicked her out, it's on me," Sophie argues, but Minnie doesn't say anything after that. "Do you think Ellie died?" Minnie asks all of a sudden and Sophie shrugs. "She's not here, but I don't think Clem would let her die, it was seeable they didn't always agree, but they seemed really close," Sophie says and Minnie stays quiet, as another scream gets through walls. "Did you talk to the people that drove her here?" Minnie asks as scream ends and Sophie nods. "I did, and they said we'll talk more when Clem wakes up." Sophie answers. "If she'll wake up..." She mutters under her breath and Minnie didn't hear that. "How's Brody?" Minnie asks, she wants to change the subject from anything that happens in the room behind them. "She's sleeping, Marlon damaged her brain, but not that bad as we expected, she remembers everything and seems to function perfectly, but she sees some sort of... Black spot? She doesn't see partially in the top left corner, but apart from that she's fine." Sophie answers and Minnie nods. "Did you say to her what you feel?" Minnie asks again, she knew what Sophie felt towards Brody... For a couple of years now, but never had the courage to tell her. "I did, the night Marlon died, she kissed me and right after it told me that she needs to talk with Marlon, but promised me that she'll be back in few minutes, she didn't and I heard shouts, so I woke Clem up to check what's going on... And you know the rest of the story." Sophie says and Minnie smiles. "Did you talk to her? After her 'accident'?" Minnie asks and Sophie nods. "I did, but not too long, I just informed her what happened, she was exhausted so I let her sleep," Sophie responds and then doors open, the doors from Clem's room, Minnie gets up immediately. "And?" Minnie asks, she sees blood on Eleanor's hands but doesn't pay attention to it. "If we would be five minutes later, she'd die, but she did it, she'll be okay," Eleanor says and Minnie smiles, she starts crying from happiness. "Can I go in?" Minnie asks and Eleanor nods, she doesn't think twice and walks in, Sophie lets her go in alone.

Minnie sees Ruby cleaning everything up after an operation? She wasn't really sure what was it, but she's sure it wasn't pleasant, Minnie quickly grabs a chair and places it next to Clem's bed and sits on it. Clem is unconscious and covered with blankets, Minnie notices that her jacket and henley are thrown on a desk. "How long she'll be unconscious?" Minnie asks and Ruby shrugs. "Eleanor told me it can be some hours before she'll wake up, maybe tomorrow." Ruby answers and walks out from the room, leaving Minnie alone with Clem. When Ruby walks out Minnie concentrates on her girlfriend, she's still pale, almost like porcelain, Minnie stands up and kisses Clem on the forehead, sits down back and holds her hand. "Rest, I ain't moving from here, they'll have to drag me out if they want me out," Minnie whispers and she just sits there in silence, she'll won't move for an entire week if she'll have to.

Javi sat at one of the tables in the courtyard with his niece and nephew, Luke, not long after Kenny joined them. Javi read the note that Gave found, Lilly wants to get rid of Clementine, better yet, kidnap her to make her fight on their side, but there's a part where Lilly mentions that she will capture kids in school, no matter what, or at least make them regret what they did, the group that Clem 'took care' of. "Clem probably saved some of the lives here," Javi states when he ends reading this note. "How?" Luke asks Gabe is listening as well as Mari. "In this note, it is said that the group Clem got rid of was meant to go here if they will manage to kill Clem, and by killing them, they didn't come here. They should be thanking her." Javi explains and Luke nods, Kenny just sits there, he wouldn't imagine that Clem would be ever capable of something like this, and don't understand him wrong, he's not disappointed, but he wishes that Clem wouldn't have to come through all of that killing, he knows it's kill or get killed, but she's only sixteen, and probably fights better than anyone in this school, including Javi, Kenny, Gabe, Mari, and Eleanor. Time passed they chatted, about a couple of things, one of those things were explaining what changed in New Frontier when Luke wasn't there, not much, but from last Clem's visit, which was three years ago, they grew about three times what New Frontier was, then Eleanor sat with them. "And?" Kenny asked, his voice was full of hope and Eleanor smiled. "She'll survive, but she's still unconscious, but there's something we need to talk about, Mari, Gabe, leave us for a moment," Eleanor says sternly, Mari gets up immediately, but just leans against a wall that far, so she won't hear anything, Gabe wanted to stay, but Javi talked him out of it and he stood next to his sister, they talked about something. "What is it?" Kenny asks and Eleanor breaths in. "When I took some of the bullet fragments and stitched her, I saw scars... Many scars, she has a huge one on her stomach, two wounds from a knife on her back, but this shouldn't leave any mark, New Frontier's mark, scar after a bullet, an old one, on her shoulder... And many cuts on her wrists." Eleanor explains and they look at her like she's stupid. "What do you mean?" Kenny asks and Eleanor breaths in again. "She cuts herself, some of them actually look fresh, from a week, or two ago," Eleanor says and Kenny clutches his fist, but he's not mad, she saw too much, that's maybe why she did it. "When she'll wake up we'll talk to her about this," Luke says and everyone agrees, then Javi gestures to kids they can return.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this short, but there's a reason for this, this chapter wasn't really meant to be released, but I thought that some people might wonder what happened to Ellie after fight with Delta. (She'll be back.)

Ellie rode on a horse with Dina for what felt like hours, and she just heard gunshots from behind, tears were making her vision blurry, but she didn't stop, if Clem was about to die it wasn't even worth it to look back, she asked her to leave, she wanted it, Ellie knows she shouldn't blame herself, but it's not that easy. It's never easy.

When hours actually passed Dina was starting to get worried about Ellie, she didn't talk or move that much, she was just riding forward, with map in her hand. "Ell, talk to me." Dina tries to convince Ellie for about seventh time, and it's still not working. "Ellie, please I'm worried," Dina begs, and Ellie turns her head to Dina. "About? That I'm a coward? That I was too scared to fight? I promised Clem I'll watch over her, I did, and in the end, I fucked it up." Ellie says emotionless, Dina never saw her in that state, not a single emotion on her face and voice. "You done nothing wrong, she asked you to run, I saw her wounds, she couldn't make it, I didn't had anything to patch her wounds properly, if I did we would stay and fight, but I didn't, fighting there would still mean Clem's death and you would have to see it, she knew that's her end, and she asked you to run to have a good life and not risk it for someone that is already dead. I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, but I love you Ellie, and I won't let you blame yourself for something you didn't have control over." Dina says she hears Ellie breathing heavily, she's making ready for hearing Ellie scream, she's sure that Ellie will say she could change something, but she started crying and sobbing. "I know... But it's still hard to accept she's dead... I treated her like a sister." Ellie cries out and turns her head back, Dina now have the courage to place her hands around Ellie's waist, so she can at least try and comfort her. "I know it's not easy, but I'll do anything to help you get through it," Dina promises and Ellie smile lightly and places one of her hands on Dina's hands and caress them with her thumb. 

Dina wanted to stop to rest for the night, but Ellie insisted to don't stop, she thought that Delta might be around, but didn't stop Dina from sleeping. Ellie wouldn't stop unless they reach Jackson.


	18. Chapter 18

Clem slowly opened her eyes, she thought she wouldn't do that again, but yet she did. Clem winced in pain when she tried to get up, but even if she wouldn't feel pain, her weakness would, but at least she feels everything. Clem tries to remember what happened, she knows she got shot and told Ellie and Dina to run, she fought with Delta ignoring the massive pain in her side, then made a run for her rifle and for lodge, got hit with arrow in her thigh, she killed the rest of Delta's soldiers then she knows someone kicked the door in then she lost consciousness. She felt naked, but her chest was covered with bandages as well as her thigh. She knows the only clothes she has on her are her panties and bra, Clem looks around the room, it's night when she fought with Delta it was morning, the room she's in is the room Clem and Ellie were sleeping which means that she's back in the school, but how? She doesn't know. Clem then feels someone holding her hand, it's tall, a redhead with a shaved side of her head, a redhead she thought she might never see again, not because she intended to break her promise, it's because of her thinking she will die, but she's not. Well... As she thinks of it, she still would break another promise, Clem did promise Minnie that she won't die, and she was really close.

"Minnie?" Clem says with a very weak voice, she's ashamed of herself in that state, so vulnerable, she almost doesn't have the power to say something, and what would happen if she had to fight for her life? She'd die most probably.

Minnie hears something and opens her eyes, she thought she heard some voices earlier when she was asleep, but every time it was her mind playing games with her, but if hearing voice would mean she'll see that Clem had woken up, she'll be happy.

When Minnie opens her eyes she sees a pool of honey in eyes if Clem, she had woken up, a smile, a wide smile appears on redhead's voice, she doesn't wait for Clem to say something she gets up from her chair and starts kissing Clem all over her face, cheeks, forehead, and the last kiss she placed was on he lips, Clem giggled weakly through the whole thing. "You're awake and alive!" Minnie almost screams, she doesn't care if she'll wake anyone up from what she knows persons that brought Clem to school are still in the courtyard, probably in their cars. "Disappointed?" Clem still masters enough power to tease even if it's barely hearable. "Nope." Minnie giggles and starts caressing Clem's hand with her thumb again. "Minnie?" Clem speaks up after a couple of minutes of pleasant silence. "Yes." Minnie answers and waits for Clem to speak up again. "Did you told Delta where we were going?" Clem asks and Minnie shakes her head. "No." Minnie answers and Clem nods. "And one more thing, could you hand me my clothes?" Clem asks with a shy voice, she's really insecure about her body and Minnie shakes her head. "They're completely destroyed, but I'll bring you some of my clothes." Minnie refuses and Clem slowly nods, Minnie quickly walks out from the room.

Clem starts thinking about who brought her to school, she should've asked, but she will when Minnie will be back.

Minnie was quickly back in her hands a really oversized (at least for Clem) t-shirt, sweatshirt, and sweatpants. "Really? Nothing else?" Clem asked amused and Minnie nods. "I took the smallest things from my part of the wardrobe, if you'd be here a week earlier then I would still have a couple of things when I was young at least you'll be warm," Minnie says and throws clothes at the bed. "Uhm... Do you need help?" Minnie asks and Clem shakes her head even if she's not entirely sure she'll be able to even move, she doesn't want Minnie to see her in such state, at least now. "No, but could you turn around?" Clem asks and Minnie nods and does what Clem asked her to do.

Getting dressed up was a lot harder and took a lot longer than Clem would like, but she managed, Minnie insisted on helping her, but Clem refused every time and she listened. "Okay, I'm done," Clem says and Minnie turns back and sits back. "So, I have one more question, what happened and where's Ellie and Dina?" Minnie asks and Clem pulls the covers on herself she starts thinking from where should she start. "Well, we were riding not far from the lodge, Delta shot once hitting me in the stomach and I told Ellie and Dina to run, I managed to give them enough time for that and I started fighting, I thought that if I'll die I'll take as many of my enemies as I can when Ellie and Dina escaped I made a run for my rifle and run to lodge, then I got hit in thigh... And the rest is fuzzy and blurry." Clem tells and Minnie slowly nods trying to process the information she just got. "So, you want to tell me that you fought off a couple of Delta's soldiers by yourself with a wound that should kill you?" Minnie asks just to confirm what she thinks and Clem nods. "Is there anything that can kill you?" Minnie jokes and Clem smiles. "Probably," Clem responds and now she wants to ask a question that was in her head for some time. "Tell me, who brought me here?" Clem asks and Minnie shrugs. "I don't know their names, I mean one of them and only by the name... Mariana? I think that's it." Minnie responds and she can see the surprised look on Clem's face, she already knows that Clem knows them. "She's here?" Clem asks and Minnie nods. "Can I see her?" Clem asks for permission and Minnie shakes her head, Clem still needs to rest. "You will in the morning, try to sleep, you're still pale, actually you have beaten Violet in that manner." Minnie jokes and Clem crosses her arms like she's offended. "I'll go if you want..." Minnie says and starts getting up from a chair, but Clem stops her. "No, stay," Clem begs and Minnie nods. "But you need to sleep." Minnie insists. "Okay, but only if you will with me." Clem offers and moves to the side making some place for Minnie. "Only because you're kindly asking." Minnie agrees and lays next to Clem and covers herself to and she almost immediately feels Clem's hands making their way around her waist, she doesn't stop her, she doesn't want to.

They were just laying there, not saying anything, just enjoying each other presence, Minnie can hear that Clem is already asleep and then she decides to close her eyes too.


	19. Chapter 19

This night wasn't really great, Minnie didn't sleep at all when Clem had fallen asleep, she was too excited that Clem woke up, and she did already sleep a little, but there was one thing that wouldn't let her sleep. Clem's scars on her wrists. She saw them when Clem shifted and her sleeve rolled up, she was terrified when she saw it, she remembers that Clem told her she wanted to kill herself, but she didn't think she actually tried. A couple of hours after Minnie seeing scars Clem started whimpering quietly in her sleep then she felt tears getting through her hoodie, Violet had nightmares too and every time Minnie woke her up it was even worse, so she doesn't wake Clem up, but she pulls her closer and rubs small circles on her back.

When whimpering started it sun already got up, another ten minutes Clem started to cry and sob then she jolted up she let out a blood-colling, very loud scream. "Fuck!" Clem screamed after the previous scream, but this one in pain. Minnie didn't wait to comfort Clem she immediately pulled her into an embrace and whispered to her ear that everything is good, that she doesn't have to be scared anymore.

Not long after everyone that helped Clem was in the room and saw Minnie hugging tightly Clem, Gabe tried to push Minnie away, but she slapped his arm before he could. "What the hell is going on?" Kenny asks, rage in his voice when he sees that girl he doesn't know nor trust is holding Clem. "She had a nightmare." Minnie answers. "Get out. When she'll calm down I'll let you." Minnie commands and fortunately they listen, well not Gabe but when Minnie glared daggers at him he walked out too.

Clem didn't even notice who was in the room, her head was in the crook of Minnie's neck crying her eyes out, she didn't hear any talking apart from Minnie's voice, she's focused on it, it's the only voice she wants to hear right now. "It's all okay." Minnie soothes her and rubs circles on her back she's one of the not many people that saw her crying, the other one is Ellie. "Do you want to talk about it?" Minnie asks after Clem is a little calmed down, she's still crying but it's that bad as it was. "Y-yeah." Clem stutters a little and Minnie just wait for Clem to start.

"I was back at that lodge, but you were with me, I wasn't shot, but you were... We fought and fought, but they didn't stop, they eventually got into the lodge and before I could even react you were dead and I got stabbed to death, it sounds really short, but it was longer... Much longer." Clem confesses, and Minnie's hear swell a little when she actually hears that Clem is scared of her death. "I'm here, you are here, we're both safe, you don't have to worry, or be scared," Minnie promises and Clem nods slowly. "Those people that saved you want to talk to you, should I let them in?" Minnie asks after another couple of minutes and Clem slowly nods and lets go of Minnie reluctantly. "You can come in!" Minnie calls out and five people walk in, Clem looks surprised to see four of them, but she seems even more surprised when she sees an older man with his white and red hat and an eye-patch. "Kenny!" Clem says as she tries to get up, but the pain stops her she winces and stops trying. "I thought you were dead," Kenny says, he doesn't get close, he can see gaze from Minnie. "What are you doing here?" Clem asks, she's really happy to see all of those people... Well, maybe not Eleanor. "We were picking up Luke, we heard shots, we found you and now we're here," Gabe explains and Clem smiles, then Kenny notices one detail, where's AJ?

Everyone sits around the room, they barely fit and fortunately, no one has to sit on the ground. "Clem, where's AJ?" Kenny asks, he doesn't know anything, the smile that Clem had just fades away. "Yeah, I noticed that he isn't around, you promised you'll come back when you found him," Javi says too and Clem takes a deep breath. "He's dead, and it's my fault." Clem blurts out, she tries not to cry, it still hurts her bad, even if it happened three years ago. "What?" Almost everyone asks, Clementine starts to explain further as everyone just listens, she then mentions the scars. "Since he died I cut myself when everything is too heavy to handle," Clem admits, it really hurts to say it, but Minnie's arm around her shoulders makes it a little bit easier, but she thinks that Minnie will be disappointed in her for cuts. Kenny started crying and just walked out from the room, he was hoping to see AJ alive, but he didn't and he never will. "Well... That explains the cuts." Luke mutters under his breath. "Clem. You alright?" Mari asks, she's concerned and Clem nods, but she's not, and she never will be, not completely.

They talked for a little while, but Kenny didn't come back, but Javi had to show the note from Delta to Clem. "Clem, Gabe found this on one of Delta's soldier body... You might want to read it." Javi says and gives Clem a note.

_This goddamned kid, she doesn't look for an adult and she kills one of our best men? I thought I trained you all well, but I now find out that I didn't. Try to get rid of her, or better yet, capture her alive, she'll be a great asset in Delta, we need people like her in our community, and if you'll find her and kill or capture her, come back for reinforcements, we need to get those kids at school to join us, they don't look though, but with enough effort, anyone can be a soldier._

"Oh... I need to talk to Sophie." Clem states, she again tries to get up from bed, but before she can try Minnie stops her. "Relax. There are things more-" Minnie starts, but gets interrupted by Clem. "They'll attack school again Minnie, no one here is good at fighting, not to the point to stop trained soldiers, we need to warn Sophie," Clem says and Minnie nods slowly. "When Sophie will get here please get out, I don't want to stress her," Clem asks and they nod. "Minnie, go for Sophie," Clem commands, she's really serious, and Minnie nods too and walks out. Clem already has a plan for helping kids.

Not long after Sophie and Minnie are back and Javi, Mari, Gabe, Luke, and Eleanor walkout, Eleanor checked her in the meantime. Sophie when sees Clem apologizes for any injuries that she got, she blamed herself for what happened, but Clem promised her it isn't her fault. "Minnie said that there's an important message that I need to hear," Sophie says with an uncertain voice, and Clem told her to calm down and sit down. "So, Delta wanted to kill me, after it, they were supposed to get back to Delta for reinforcements and... Attack school. Again." Clem explains and Sophie wants to panic, but Clem calms her down. "I'll do anything do help you, but I can't in my state... I have a proposition for the whole school. I know Javi, he's a leader of New Frontier from what I know, you could join them and still be independent, and you probably will get reinforcements too, and I'll help you train them." Clem says and Sophie shrugs. "You think they'll accept us? We're just kids." Sophie says with a given up voice, Clem knew she'll say that. "I'll talk to him, and if he'll accept I will convince people in Richmond to help us, they're good people, they'll help us," Clem reassures, she isn't sure if it'll work, but she believes it will. "Thank you, Clem." Sophie thanks and Clem smiles. "Is Javi outside?" Clem asks Minnie and she nods. "Javi come in, but alone!" Clem yells and Javi gets in and sits next to Sophie. "Javi meet Sophie, Sophie meet Javi. Javi, Sophie leads group of these kids and I have a request to make in their name." Clem starts and Javi nods to make her continue. "Delta will attack again, from what I know you're in a war with them, I want to ask you to let them into New Frontier, they could stay here and you maybe could send some reinforcements here," Clem says like it's the easiest thing to do, she hopes that Javi will accept their request. "I can accept them into New Frontier, and I could send some reinforcements, but... I can't give you an actual soldier, maybe you could convince some of 'civils'." Javi offers, Sophie feels like it's already lost, but Clem accepts their deal. "I'll train them, and if you could give me a car, I need to go to Wyoming," Clem says and Javi nods slowly. "Okay, but I won't let you alone... Actually I have one person that wants to have anything to do, she's grieving over her sister, she looked for her for years and she didn't find her, she gave up on finding her. She's a little... Rebellious, but she's a good kid, a little older than you she's 18 years old." Javi says and Clem nods, she can go anytime now, but she would want to get anything to eat, so she asked Minnie and she nodded and walked out with Sophie to get something for Clem. "Okay... So if they're gone you can tell me what happened to you for those three years, and I'll return the favor." Javi says with a huge smile as his nephew and niece comes in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I want to say a couple of things. Firstly, I will put many OCs in here from a reason that will be explained later in the story and the other thing is that Clem has a sister, but she won't be an OC, she'll be from another game (I won't tell which one) and she'll be here in a couple of next chapters, she should be in this in about 3 to 5 chapters. And well... The game that Clem's sister will be from isn't in any way associated with zombies or anything like that in general. Oh, and so you know, she was adopted by Clem's parents around a year before the apocalypse, so they were close with each other.


	20. Chapter 20

Kenny joined them in room no long after, Luke told that he'll take a look around the school and make everything ready to ride out from there and Eleanor joined him. "Tell me Clem, who's that redhead, you two seemed... Pretty close." Gabe says and he actually flinches when he says the 'close' part. "Firstly, it's Minerva, not some redhead, and why do you care?" Clem retorts and Gabe wants to say something back, but Mari stops him. "We're just curious, plus it looks like she'll do anything you ask her to," Mariana says and Clem doesn't know what she should tell, how will they even react to her relationship with Minnie? Well, Javi won't do anything as well as Mariana, but Gabe and Kenny might be different, Clem is sure that Gabe had a crush on her four years ago and who knows what Kenny will think. To Clem, it seems like she thought for at least a couple of minutes, but it was only a couple of seconds, she thinks she might as well tell them, at least they'll leave now and not when Clem will warm up to them again. "She's my girlfriend," Clem admits and Javi slowly nods, Mari smiles, Kenny doesn't say anything, but he doesn't seem to mind, but Gabe, oh he looks a little bit against it. "You're sure that it's the right choice?" Gabe asks, and Clem already feels like she's about to hit him. "Yes," Clem responds quickly and Gabe frowns a little, Clem can't believe he even tries to make her regret her decision. "Nothing wrong with me," Kenny says and Clem feels a little bit of relief wash over her, she knew that Gabe won't be really happy about her relationship. "How long are you together?" Mari asks, of course, she won't shut up about it now. "Four days if I count right," Clem responds and Mari nods. "And you know her for?" Javi asks now and Clem rolls her eyes, she starts to regret she said anything, actually, she hopes that Minnie will come to her in a short while, she's really hungry. "Five days," Clem says and it's definitively not the answer they expected, it's silent for a while until Clem decides to change the topic. "So how are things at Richmond?" Clem asks and Mari shrugs, Gabe still seems touched and Javi needs to say something as Kenny doesn't know the whole Richmond, he's in New Frontier for about a week. "Well, it's about three times bigger than the last time you visited us," Javi responds and Clem slowly nods, she's surprised they could even reach that size, New Frontier was on the edge after things that happen three years ago, but they raised up, and they actually manage to go for war with Delta. "How the war is going?" Clem asks and Javi starts wondering about that question. "Hard to say honestly, we took some damage, but we did some too." Javi answers, he isn't really sure who's actually winning. "Well, if I'll survive the attack of Delta here, I might help you win it." Clem offers and Javi nods. "Will your girlfriend let you?" Mari teases and Clem shrugs. "Probably will be reluctant to it. The last time I left school I almost died." Clem jokes, the pain is bothering her a little, but she manages. 

They talked for a bit, even Gabe joined the conversation after a while, Clem tried to avoid any topics related to her, it's not like she doesn't trust people she talks with, it's that she doesn't like talking about her past. Minnie walks in with a steaming bowl in her hands, spoon in it too and she hands it to Clem. "Thanks," Clem says with a smile, and Minnie sits next to her. The conversation was pretty nice for Minnie, but Gabe is staring daggers at her, and she doesn't know why. Clem recognizes the stew she's eating, it's almost the same she ate last time and she still likes it. "Okay, when we're leaving?" Clem asks when she was done with her stew and Minnie doesn't like an idea of Clem going out that fast from the school. "Not sure. But we will as soon as we can, do you need to go somewhere before we'll reach Richmond?" Javi asks and Clem nods. "Yeah, Prescott, I have my clothes and a couple of other things I need to take." Clem answers and Javi nods in agreement. 

Almost everyone excused himself, apart from Minnie, Clem stayed with her as everybody else was still making sure everything was ready for the ride. "You have to go that early?" Minnie asks, Clem didn't even realize when they were laying on the bed. "Yeah, I have to. I'll try to be as fast as possible, but you know, I have to go to Wyoming and find Jackson. I should be back in... A week? Maybe faster, but I'll have people around me, so I'll be alright." Clem answers, now Minnie's hand is playing with her hair, she likes the feeling of that. "But why you're going to Jackson? You said you're getting reinforcements from Richmond, at least you said you'll try." Minnie questions and Clem sighs. "Ellie probably thinks I'm dead. I want to at least tell her I'm not, plus Dina was with Delta for a while, so maybe I'll be able to get some information we'll need." Clem answers and Minnie nods. "That's good. Do you think Ellie will want you to stay there?" Minnie asks and Clem nods. "Yep. Maybe I will for a couple of days, depends on how I'll feel, I don't want to pull those stitches, I need to recover as much as I can and then I'll need to get back in shape." Clem responds and Minnie doesn't like that idea, she wants Clem back as fast as she possibly can, but she wants to say she loves her before she'll go. 

Not whole ten minutes after, Kenny told Clem they can go already, so Minnie helped her get up and the thing was that she couldn't really walk, so Minnie helped her, well Clem didn't want to, but Minnie insisted, so Clem agreed. When they reached courtyard some people looked at her with relief, some with a saddened look, and one of them looked like he was still pissed at her even if Clem saved the whole school a couple of times. Mitch. Clem just ignored him. Before they could reach cars Minnie stopped which made Clem stop too, she's still leaning on Minnie not to fall, so she can't move even if she would want to. "Clem?" Minnie whispers, she doesn't want anyone to hear them. "Yeah?" Clem whispers back and Minnie instead of responding kisses her, it is different than any other of their kisses, it's loving and sweet, Clem wishes they could stay like that for a little while longer, but Minnie pulls away after a couple of seconds. "I want to tell you... I love you." Minnie stutters a little, but she means it with all of her heart and Clem smiles but doesn't respond for a while, so Minnie gets nervous. "I mean, I know you might not feel the same-" Minnie started to explain herself, but Clem cuts her off with another kiss, this one is even better, more loving, and with more passion than the last one. "I love you too." Clem finally responds and Minnie's heart flutters and she feels a wave of relief, she wants to connect their lips again, but she saw Gabe again staring daggers at her, so she stops, but she also knows that they'll have more time for that later. 

Minnie finally walked with Clem to the car and from there Kenny just made sure she won't fall when she was getting inside of the car, and Minnie already knows that Clem is probably annoyed with all of that, but she'll manage... Probably. 

They started riding, she was in truck with Javi, his nephew, niece, and Eleanor, she didn't like that she was in one car with her, but Eleanor insisted that she wants to keep a close eye on Clem just in case, and Kenny and Luke were in truck. Clem tried to talk with Gabe, but he said that he's tired and pretended to sleep, so she started to talk with Mari and they just talked about anything they could think of.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so you all will get to know who's Clem's sister, and Omid didn't die in season 2. I'll add tags tomorrow as I don't want to spoil anything before even reading.

As they were riding to Prescott, Clem started to wonder why Gabe doesn't talk at all. "What happened to him?" Clem asks, three years ago he wouldn't stop talking to her if he had a chance. "Well, he thinks that thing between you and Minerva is a mistake." Mari answers, she heard him talking with Javi about this, but Javi said it isn't their place to say anything, plus he said that Minnie doesn't seem like someone that bad as Gabe says Minnie is. "Well, maybe it is because you don't even know her." Gabe scoffs, it startles both Mari and Clem as he didn't tell anything through the whole ride. "And I don't know her." Clem retorts, she doesn't know Minnie and she doesn't mind that at all. "That's what I'm saying, but you think it's a good thing," Gabe argues and Clem rolls her eyes. "I didn't say it's a good thing, I said I don't know her. Gabe try to understand me, I'm fighting for three fucking years without a break, and if I have an even small chance to be happy with Minnie, I'm willing to take it." Clem tries to end this conversation and Javi helps her. "Gabe, I told you it's not our place to tell her who can she like and who she can't, plus you're a hypocrite, and you know why," Javi says before Gabe can and he scoffs. "Clem, we're going to Richmond first, cause... I promised in Prescott I'll end this whole with Delta in one month and it's going for over half a year now. I don't want to show myself there, but this girl I told you about will go with you." Javi says and Clem nods and now all four of them sit in silence. 

They're inside the Richmond, and the gates are in another place than Clem remembers them, but well, Javi told her they're three times bigger now. The sight inside the city is incredible, people walking around the streets, laughing, smiling, children playing around, it's something that Clem could get used to, but what surprises her is that almost no one is bothered by the war outside their gates. By the time they get out of the car, it's already evening and they stopped talking around afternoon, and Clem actually took a nap inside the truck. When they get out, Clem takes a look around, she sees lights in the buildings, kids running around her, laughing, she smiles and actually can stand by herself which makes her smile even wider, then she feels a small pat on her back. "I know, it's incredible." Javi praises and Clem nods. "Yeah, it is. I'm glad that you could make something that looks similar to the old days." Clem says and Javi shrugs, it's not only his work, actually, Kate put more work into it, but won't admit it. "Kate put more work than I did, but it's still nice to hear you say it. Okay, I need to go, but Kenny will lead you to that girl, please stay for the night, you'll meet with Kate tomorrow and you'll be able to go." Javi says and walks off, Luke told that he will take Eleanor to his place, so she can sleep the night on his couch and she still has to do a few things inside Richmond before she'll leave to Prescott, Gabe and Mari just disappeared in the crowd. "Okay, we can go to two places. We can go to that girl or to Christa and Omid. Your choice." Kenny says with a smile, Clem didn't know if Christa and Omid survived, she didn't hear from them since the attack six years ago. "They're here?! They're alive?!" Clem asks and Kenny nods with a chuckle. "So?" Kenny asks. "Christa and Omid first." Clem answers 

Kenny leads Clem to some kind of apartment block and when Clem sees the stairs she thinks it can't end well, their whole way there was Clem almost falling, but she managed. "I'll pick you up." Kenny offers and Clem nods reluctantly. Kenny picks her up and starts going up the stairs and with a couple of grunts, they're on the third floor and Kenny puts Clem back on the floor, she slowly moves to place where no one could recognize her. "Wait," Kenny says and knocks on the door. "Christa!" Kenny yells a little and from inside the apartment both of them can hear some steps. "Kenny, for fuck's sake, it's almost night." Christa scolds him and Clem can't wait much more and makes herself visible. Christa didn't change much apart from a few grey hairs on her head. "Christa?" Clem asks for confirmation and Christa eyes her and her face is in complete shock. "Clementine?" Christa asks and Clem nods after that Christa runs up and hugs Clem tightly, and Clem almost falls. "I thought you died." Clem whispers and Christa shakes her head. "We didn't. Come in." Christa offers when she let's go of Clem. 

They walk inside the apartment, and Clem loves how it looks, it's like walkers never existed, what she would give to just stay there... Maybe after the whole Delta thing. Wall are in bright colors and furniture is dark it makes a nice contrast. "Omid! We have a visitor!" Christa says and Omid walks out, he seems like he just washed, they even have water? What Clem would give for a shower right now, she still can feel dried blood on her body as well as dirt. "Clem?" Omid says as a smile appears on his face, and Clementine nods with a smile on her face as well. He walks up and hugs her and says that he missed her and she replies with that as well. "When did you find her?" Christa asks Kenny and he picks up his hat a little and drives his hand through his hair. "Well, I was out with Javi picking up Luke and we heard shots, and she took on eight Delta soldiers by herself," Kenny explains and Christa looks like she's surprised while Omid pats her on the back a little bit too hard and she falls. Clem curses when she hits the floor, Christa scolds Omid and helps Clem get up. "I did manage to take care of them, but I almost died myself, I got shot right under the ribs and in the thigh with an arrow," Clem explains as Omid doesn't even know why she fell. "Oh, I'm sorry." Omid apologizes and Clem is already standing. "Don't mention it, you didn't know." Clem waves it off, and Christa leads her to a couch on which her and Clem sit as Kenny and Omid sit in chairs on the opposite side of the table. "What did happen to you after we were separated?" Omid asks, and Clem is sure that she won't mention too much of the details. "How much do you know? Did Kenny told you anything?" Clem asks, she doesn't want to tell anything that they already know. "Well, to the point where you got separated with him," Christa explains and Clem nods. "Well, it would be too long to tell it in one conversation, but in shortcut. I was badly hurt after I and Kenny got separated, I got saved by a girl named Ellie, she took me to the community named Prescott, and they patched me up there, since then I was fighting with walkers, and bandits for living, and faced death more than I can possibly count." Clem explains briefly. "Did you get any scars?" Omid asks excitedly and Christa starts staring daggers at him and Clem rolls her eyes. "Yep. A lot of them. One of them actually from New Frontier, three years ago I was part of this when they were branding their members." Clem confirms and Omid nods. 

Christa, Omid, Clem, and Kenny talked for a while longer until Kenny reminded himself he still needs to get Clem to Chloe. "Okay, we need to go," Kenny announces and Clem looks a little bit saddened. "Where?" Christa asks, she thought to give Clem a sleepover on the couch. "Well, my fighting with Delta made them attack a group of kids that were attacked by Delta earlier, I helped them get their friends back and the day after I was in that fight and they're attacking this school and I promised to help them, I got here for reinforcements for them," Clem explains and Christa stands up. "We can go with you." Omid offers and his wife nods. "No, I can't risk it." Clem disagrees and Christa shakes her head. "Not your place to decide, we will go with you." Christa retorts and Clem sighs deeply, she knows that Christa is stubborn, so she doesn't even try to convince Christa to not follow her. "Okay, but I'm going to Wyoming first, Ellie is there, and she thinks I'm dead, when I'll come back, I will gather more people and we will go." Clem agrees and Christa smiles and sits back. 

When Clem and Kenny are out from the apartment, Clem sighs again. "I'll go with you too," Kenny says and Clem doesn't even try, he's even more stubborn than Christa. "Okay, lead me to that girl, and I'll ask her if I can sleep at her place and if she won't let me, I'll just come back to Christa," Clem says and Kenny nods. 

The way to almost the same looking apartment block is quite long, and Clem almost falls, but she regains her balance just in time. Kenny shows her where he lives and Clem nods. The way to the door of the apartment in which Clem's first person to join her is in is on the first floor, so Kenny wasn't that tired in comparison to what he felt when they reached Christa's and Omid's place. Kenny knocks on the door and nothing is hearable. "Of course she's sleeping." Kenny groans and knocks on the door with much more force. "What the fuck?!" Someone yells from inside and not long after doors open. "What is it?" A girl with strawberry blonde hair asks. "Javi said you want a job. Someone needs to take her to Wyoming tomorrow." Kenny explains briefly and girl eyes Clem, but her eyes stop on her hat. "Where did you get that hat?" The girl asks and Clem decides to be honest with the girl, clearly, she recognizes it from somewhere, and Clem has a feeling that she saw that girl before. "Got it from my dad," Clem explains and girl's eyes widen a little. "Wait... Your name isn't Clementine Marsh by any chance?" The girl asks and Clem nods in confusion, no one knew her last name. "Yeah?" Clem says and the girl's eyes light up and she smiles, Clem didn't even know when the girl was hugging her. "You don't recognize me?" The girl asks and Clem shakes her head. "Well, it was some time I guess... My name is Chloe Price." Chloe reveals and Clem's eyes can't believe what she's seeing. Her sister, that she thought died eight years ago is standing right in front of her, well she changed. "Okay... I see you need to catch up, I'll go." Kenny says and starts walking away. 

"But how?" Clem asks, she hugs her again, but this time she reappreciates it. "I ran away when our babysitter turned, but I barely got out," Chloe explains, she feels like she's about to cry from happiness. "Come in." Chloe invites and Clem walks in, her apartments is much darker, but still has some light tones in it. "Sorry for the mess." Chloe apologizes and Clem smiles. "Some things never change?" Clem teases, she remembers how Chloe's room looked when the dead weren't walking. "I guess." Chloe laughs a little and quickly puts a couple of dirty cups in the sink. "How did you survive? You were still in that treehouse?" Chloe asks and Clem nods. "I'll tell you what happened tomorrow, okay? I'm not really in the state to." Clem promises and Chloe nods. "Sure. Uh, you can crash on the couch, I'll bring you some blankets." Chloe says and Clem nods, she will have a long talk with Chloe what happened these past few years tomorrow. "Okay. Chloe?" Clem calls out and Chloe turns to her. "Yeah?" Chloe waits for the answer and Clem smiles. "I missed you," Clem admits and Chloe smiles too. "I missed you too."


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's just closure to the previous chapter, I won't be updating this story for a while since I want to finally play the last of us, but I'll get it in about few days, cuz' when I wanted to buy it, it wasn't in shop and now I'll just order it somewhere else.

Chloe brought a couple of blankets from her bedroom and threw it on the couch that Clem will be sleeping on. "Okay. You need anything else?" Chloe asks and Clem reminds herself of hopes for a shower. "Yeah, if I could take a shower I'd be grateful," Clem says and Chloe nods and points on the door that probably leads towards the bathroom. "But there's one more thing..." Clem mutters, she won't be able to handle putting bandages back on again, usually, Ellie helped her with that, but she's not around. "Anything else?" Chloe asks and Clem nods. "Yep, I have a bandage on me, and I won't be able to put it on again after I shower." Clem finally says and Chloe nods. "I'll help you, yell when you'll need my help," Chloe promised and Clem nodded and wandered towards the bathroom. 

Clem was inside the bathroom, it's small, but there's enough of place to move around. "Towels are inside the cupboard under the sink!" Chloe yells from the living room and Clem nods to herself and opens the cupboard that Chloe pointed and took a, ironically, orange towel. Clem took off her clothes and bandages and looked at herself in the mirror. So many places on her body are filled with scars, some on the arms, couple on the torso, including huge one from a knife from a couple of years ago, and not that many and none of them really visible on her legs, and now she'll have another one from a gunshot wound on her abdomen and on her back. Clem winces a little when she touches the wound. Clem sighs and gets into the shower and puts tap so it should have warm water, but her hopes aren't much, another move of her hand and water starts flowing, it's cold and Clem shivers a little, but a smile on her face appears when warm water starts flowing, dry blood slowly disappearing as well as the dirt. Clem washes and founds a soap, and is reluctant to use it, but does it anyway when she was done, she used a towel and dried herself as good as she possibly could and put her undergarments on, she then leans on the sink. "Chloe!" Clem yells and Chloe walks in. "Okay... You want fresh ones or those?" Chloe asks and points towards bandages thrown on the floor. "If you can give me fresh ones," Clem says politely and Chloe nods, Chloe didn't look on Clem good, so she didn't saw her scars. "Why do you need bandages anyway?" Chloe asks, she holds fresh bandages in her hand and turns to Chloe and looks closer and her eyes widen a little when she sees scars on her sister's body. "How the hell did you get all of these?" Chloe asks as her hand's lands on her sister's shoulder on which is one of the recent scars, it's from when bullet almost hit her. "Every one of them has a different story," Clem says as she starts to get uncomfortable and clears her throat to make an obvious sign for her sister to stop. "Yeah, sorry." Chloe apologizes and sees a recent wound and she already knows where she has to apply the bandage. 

When Chloe was done with bandages, Clem got dressed up and Chloe noticed that clothes on her are a little loose. "Whose clothes is it?" Chloe asks and Clem turns her head to the side and shrugs. "Okay, now I know that they aren't from just a friend. Tell me who wants to get between your legs." Chloe jokes and Clem's face is taken by crimson red. "So there is someone, tell me." Chloe insists with an excited voice and Clem rolls her eyes at her childishness. "Okay, there is someone, but how about this. I need help from many people I got here to get reinforcements that hopefully will help me and the group back in the woods defeat Delta, they want to attack their school and I promised that I'll help them, and the person that _'wants to get between my legs'_ is there, so you know... You can get to know her." Clem offers and Chloe smiles and raises her eyebrows. "Her?" Chloe asks in a teasing manner and Clem nods. "Yes her, and you'll be able to meet her if you'll join me," Clem says and Chloe pretends to be thinking about an answer. "Of course I'll go with you, I just got you back and you think I'll just let you go? But if you're looking support here why we're going to Wyoming?" Chloe asks and Clem shakes her head. "You'll get to know tomorrow," Clem says and Chloe sighs in defeat. "Okay, but you better tell me everything tomorrow." __

_ _Sisters went into the living room and Clem laid on the couch and covered herself with a blanket. "Good night," Clem says as she closes her eyes, Chloe said the same and the door to her bedroom closes and Chloe lays down on her bed and closes her eyes, she's grateful that Clem didn't come into her room, it's an even bigger mess than the living room._ _


	23. Chapter 23

Clem woke up and the first thing she registered is pain from her gunshot wound, it's worse than it was yesterday, she winces and forces herself to sit, sending another wave of pain throughout her body. Clem thought it wouldn't be that bad, but it is and she has to handle it, she has to see Ellie no matter what, but first, she has to wake Chloe up. Clem stands up from the couch she was sleeping on and almost falls, but she manages to keep her balance and she starts heading towards the door that leads to Chloe's bedroom and knocks on them, and, of course, no answer. "Chloe, wake up!" Clem yells and when she again gets no answer, she just walks in. 

The mess inside Chloe's room is unbelievable, clothes are thrown around the room, plates are laying on the shelf as well as some mugs, Clem sighs and shakes her head when she sees that, she looks out the window and sees it's still dark outside, which means she still has some time before she has to wake Chloe up, so she decides to clean her room up, she just can't help it, back in Prescott Clem always liked to keep things clean, well, she never cleaned Ellie's room as it was always clean because Ellie only slept in her room. 

Clem started to clean, it helped her to stop thinking about her pain, but it was still there and she knew about it, but after about one and a half hour she was done, well apart from clothes, she folded them, but Clem doesn't know where she has to put it, so she will let Chloe do that. 

Clem stands next to Chloe's bed and shakes Chloe. "Chloe, wake the fuck up." Clem says and Chloe mumbles something like 'fuck off' or something, Clem knows she won't be able to wake Chloe the easy way, so she puts one hand on Chloe's leg and another one on her shoulder and pushes her from the bed. "Dude, what the fuck?!" Chloe asks when she hits the floor. "I said wake up," Clem says and helps Chloe from the floor. "Yeah, I heard you. What the hell happened here?" Chloe asks when she sees that her room is completely clean, something she never managed to achieve. "I couldn't stand the mess here, I hope you don't mind," Clem says and Chloe waves it off. "Of course I don't, I never managed to clean it that well," Chloe responds and Clem nods. "So, we have to go?" Chloe asks and Clem shakes her head. "Not yet, Javi wanted me to meet with Kate, I wanted to argue, but I'd die if not for him, so I agreed," Clem explains and Chloe nods. "You want coffee?" Chloe asks and Clem nods almost immediately, she doesn't remember the last time she had coffee. 

"Here." Chloe hands Clem mug full of coffee and Clem takes a sip. "Do you wanna go with me to Javi? I need to go, and I won't able to get down the stairs by myself, I couldn't yesterday and the pain is even worse." Clem asks and Chloe nods slowly. "Sure, but you think he won't mind?" Chloe says and Clem shakes her head. "He won't when he'll find out you're my family," Clem responds and Chloe nods. 

"I"ll go change and we can go." Chloe says and she disappears in her room, and Clem is now alone in the living room, she hears a knock on the door and she goes to the door and opens them and sees Javi standing behind them. "Hey." Javi greets and Clem leans against the door frame. "Hey, why you're here?" Clem asks, Javi didn't tell her he will come to Chloe's place. "Well, I know that you don't know where you need to go as well as Chloe, so I thought I'll come and lead you, and I wanted to make sure you won't run away." Javi jokes and Clem rolls her eyes. "I never run away." Clem retorts and Javi nods. "I know, I'm just joking. You're ready to go?" Javi asks and Clem shakes her head. "Nope, I'm waiting for Chloe, she'll go with us, I don't want to climb those goddamned stairs again and besides, Chloe is my sister, so I don't mind her by my side," Clem says and Javi's eyes widen in surprise. "She's what?" Javi asks as he didn't hear what Clem said. "She's my sister, my parents adopted her when I was seven I think, she had to run away from our home not long after the start of this shit, and I was in my treehouse, I didn't know she's even alive," Clem explains and Javi slowly nods as he tries to process the information he just got. "Okay, I wasn't going to argue that she can't go even if she wouldn't be your sister, but that's good to know," Javi responds and both him and Clem hears door being open, and steps heading towards the entry door. 

"Can we go?" Chloe asks, completely ignoring Javi. "Yeah, we can," Clem responds and Javi nods too. They walk out to the staircase and Clem sighs. "Lean on me, somehow, we'll manage," Chloe says when she sees the expression on Clem's face and Clem nods. 

Slowly, but surely they had made their way downstairs and when they walked outside the building Clem noticed that snow if falling which means that now she'll have to worry more about the food situation in the school. "So, I heard that you're back." A female voice says, the voice Clem recognizes. "Yeah I'm back, but I'll be leaving in a short while. Hey Kate." Clem greets with a smile. "Hey, Clem. I know that too. Javi told me that you have a group of kids that are willing to join New Frontier, and I also heard that you're willing to fight with them against Delta, tell me, is Javi overreacting, or is it true?" Kate asks, she doesn't wait and goes strictly to the point. "Yeah, something like that," Clem responds and Kate nods. "Okay, but it won't be for free, Javi told me they're still kids, and that they don't know how to fight, so they won't take part in fighting with Delta, apart from that one fight that you'll be leading, but they'd have to keep our soldiers in that school of yours from time to time, you know a place they can rest, and in exchange, you'll have support if anything will happen, but now it's not possible as Delta started to fight more vigorously, and you'll get a monthly delivery of supplies, food mostly, but sometimes ammo too," Kate explains the conditions of joining New Frontier by kids in school, and she thought they'll be forced to fight Delta, but they're not and Clem is grateful for that. "That's good, great even, thank you, Kate, that really means a lot to me." Clem thanks and Kate nods. "Don't mention it. If you'll want to actually catch up with me and the rest comeback after the fight with Delta, I know that you don't have much time for preparing it, but I'll ask around, and someone will join you." Kate says like it's an easiest thing to do, just give someone people that will probably die, and Clem nods and walks away with Chloe waving goodbye. "Well, that went better than I expected. What the hell they owe you that they helped you without that much of trouble?" Chloe asks, but then Javi catches up to them. "I forgot to give you keys to the car, Clem you have the truck we went here yesterday, it's where we left it," Javi says, his breathing is heavy, even if it wasn't a long run and Clem nods. "Thanks, Javi," Clem responds and Javi walks in the other way and girls in other. 

Chloe said she'll drive and Clem agreed, when they were leaving the city and Clem found some CDs with music inside the glove compartment and immediately turned it on, and it actually worked. "So, now tell me what happened to you through all these years," Chloe says and Clem sighs, secretly she was hoping that Chloe will forget about it. "Many things, too many to cover it in one conversation." Clem tries to get away with telling her story, but Chloe won't give up. "Come on... At least tell me the parts you can, okay? It'll take us a while to reach Wyoming." Chloe begs and Clem realizes that she has to go to Prescott first. "You know where Prescott is?" Clem asks and Chloe shakes her head. "I thought we're going to Wyoming?" Chloe asks and Clem nods. "Because we do, but I need to go to Prescott first, I have a couple of things that I need to pick up first," Clem explains and Chloe nods in understanding. "Okay, then show me the way, and in meantime tell me at least one story, how about the one that'd explain that wound of yours?" Chloe asks and Clem sighs, she can tell that one as it's not bad as some of the others. 

The ride towards Prescott was filled with a couple of laughs and poor singing, but nevertheless they reached it, and guards let them in without much of a fuss. "So this is here?" Chloe asks and Clem nods. "You lived here?" Chloe asks again in surprise, Prescott looks a lot worse than Richmond, but when Clem nods again Chloe doesn't say anything. "I know it looks worse... And it's actually is worse, but the place itself isn't that bad, but the people here, I don't trust them that much." Clem says and Chloe nods and kind of understand it when some dude looked at her with mischief in his eyes. 

A couple of minutes later pair was at the doors to Clem's place, and Ellie's. When they enter it Clem sighs. "So what do we need?" Chloe asks and Clem thinks about that question. "Okay, you'll look for food, it should be in there as well as some duffel bags, fill them up with canned food, I'll go change to something else and take a couple of... Essentials and we can go to Wyoming," Clem says and Chloe nods and walks away, and Clem enters her room. 

Clem looks around and locates one duffel bag, picks it up and walks to her wardrobe, she'll need some things to change into back in the school. When she has packed some clothes, she already knows what she'll dress into. 

Chloe walks inside some small room with dim lighting, it doesn't have any source of light apart from a small window, but Chloe still sees everything clearly, what makes her wonder is why the hell Clem has a shelf full of canned food. "Where the hell you got all of that?!" Chloe asks and raises her voice to make sure that Clem hears her. "Most of it is from scavenging! Well, everything if we count looting corpses!" Clem replies and Chloe nods to herself. Chloe looks for the duffel bag Clem was talking about and it's laying under a shelf the food is on and starts to fill it up. 

When Chloe walks out with filled bag of food, Clem is already standing in something like a living room at least Chloe thinks it's a living room, Clem leans on the wall, she changed her clothes, now she's wearing a black turtleneck, dark pair of cargo pants and a red leather jacket, it's seemingly worn out, but it looks good, but the other thing Chloe notices is two duffel bags. "What's in them?" Chloe asks as she points towards two bags, Clem shrugs. "In one we have a lot of ammo and some clothes for me, and in the other one guns, a lot of them honestly. Talking about guns, have you ever shot one?" Clem asks and Chloe nods a little, she did once. "I did, but I didn't hit the target," Chloe says and Clem sighs and reaches to one of the bags and pulls out a pistol. "Well, I'll teach you, but not now. Either way, take it, maybe you'll need it, it's already loaded." Clem hands Chloe a pistol and she takes it. "Thanks, but I hope that I won't have to," Chloe says and hides the pistol. 

Siblings walk out from the house and when Clem sees one man walking down the street was eyeing her strangely, she becomes a little bit more focused and Chloe notices that. "What is it?" Chloe asks and Clem looks around and sees the man that was eyeing her runs off. "Okay, the friend we're going to, her girlfriend got kidnapped, because of the job I got from someone I never saw or heard of, I took it, it's probably Delta, and if they're here, we're fucked. They might attack me, if they will, run. I'll find you." Clem commands and Chloe nods, Clem stops and Chloe with her, Clem opens the bag she carries and takes out a rifle, then opens the bag Clem has on her back and pulls out a magazine. A rifle that Clem took out is now hanging on her shoulder and Chloe is nervous, she once fought an actual person and she'd die if not Javi. "Stop being nervous so much. I told you, I'll handle them, I just want you to run." Clem says and Chloe takes a couple of deep breathes and nods. 

The closer they got to the car the more relaxed Clem was, until three men stood in front of them. "Where the hell you think you're goin'?" One man says and Clem wants to reach for her rifle, but someone kicks her in the knee from behind making her drop the bag with guns. "Stay down." A woman says and Chloe can't do anything, she can't move. "Chloe, don't move," Clem commands, she has a plan. "I'd listen to your friend." Another man says, a woman walks in front of Chloe and looks her in the eyes and Chloe is too stressed to keep the eye contact and breaks it and the woman smiles devilishly. "We don't have anything against you kid, you can go." Woman says and Clem reaches for the pistol that Chloe has, her movement is quick, too quick for any of the people that stopped them to react, and Clem shoots right in woman's eye, then pushes Chloe aside and tells her to run, and she runs off in the other direction. 

Clem hides behind some metal plate and checks how many bullets she has, six for three people, she can miss at max three times unless Prescott's guards will manage to stop them. Clem takes a look from behind her cover and two of men tries to flank her from the left, while one of them charges at her from the front, she immediately shoots and misses, another shot she hits him in the knee, he screams in pain, another shot, but not from her, but from the other two men, the shot misses her head by mere inches. Clem quickly moves behind a metal pillar, successfully covering her from shooting, Clem sees that man she hit is holding his thigh, trying to stop the bleeding, but his mistake was not finding cover first, she aims and shots hitting man right in his neck, killing him, one of the men that tried to flank Clem is now charging while the other one is providing covering fire for him, so Clem can't really take a shot at any of them, she crouches and aims forward and waits for the man charging at her to walk right into her trap, but that never happens. 

Clem feels someone's arm tightening on her neck, she tries to fight back, but she can't, and she can't also drop the pistol as then she'll be defenseless, Clem quickly looks for a way to fight back and she looks at the pillar she was just hiding behind, and she already has an idea. Clem jumps up, pain from her gunshot wound hurts a lot when she does that, but she ignores it, while still in the air she puts her foot on the metal pillar and bounces of it with all power she has, successfully making her and the man fall onto the ground. The grip on her neck loosens enough for Clem to break out from it, when she does, the panic that filled her just now starts to show itself and Clem didn't think when she shot all bullets she had left in the man that tried to choke her. 

Clem curses under her breath when she realizes what she had done, but then a shot that hit the sleeve of her jacket woke her up and she immediately took cover and looked for anything she could use, then she spotted a brick, but there's a high chance she'll get shot while trying to get it, but it's just takin a chance, or being sure she'll die as she has nothing to defend herself with, so she runs to the brick and picks it up and without thinking she throws it at the man that was to slow to start shooting, the brick hit him in the head making him stumble and loss his balance, Clem rushed at him, he was in no condition to shoot, she jumped at him and started hitting him across his face, blow after blow until he lost his consciousness. 

This whole fight in Clem's mind was long, but in reality, it took only a couple of minutes, then she heard steps from the side. "What the hell happened here? Clem?" A man asks, Tripp, great, that's what Clem just needed. "They attacked me, not my fucking fault they're stupid. I suspect they're from Delta, I might have pissed them off." Clem explains herself and walks past Tripp to pick up her bag and look for Chloe. "What the hell do you mean by it?" Tripp asks, he's furious, and Clem isn't surprised, she just killed four people inside his community. "I helped my friends, okay? They kidnapped their friends, I got them out, since then they want me dead, as well as those friends of mine, I got here just to get my things, nothing more." Clem explains and Tripp crosses his arms. "Chloe! It's clear!" Clem yells and Chloe stands up from behind a car and looks surprised when she spots four bodies and just Clem and man she doesn't know. "You two did that?" Chloe asks her voice is a little shaky. "It was her and only her work," Tripp says and gestures to the rest of the people inside a community that it is clear, people that could help Clem, now Chloe realize why she doesn't trust those people. 

"You're alright?" Clem asks and Chloe nods, Clem walks back and picks up her rifle, Chloe following her. "But are _you_ alright? You already have a bruise on your neck. Your turtleneck rolled down." Chloe now asks and Clem just rolls up her turtleneck and shrugs. "As well as I can be, what just happened was, more or less, my life for the last three years," Clem says and just walks to the car, Chloe picked up her bags and followed her sister. "You're kidding," Chloe says with a sure voice and Clem shakes her head. "Unfortunately no, it was one of many things I had done just to keep my thoughts from some... Things." Clem says and Chloe nods, even if she doesn't understand a single thing and puts her bags to the of the truck, and Clem does the same. 

"So Wyoming?" Chloe asks as she starts the truck, music starts playing by itself when the truck was started. "Yep." It's the only response Chloe gets.


	24. Chapter 24

Twenty-eight hours, that's the time they were riding towards Jackson, and Clem actually counted it, now she's riding as Chloe is resting and by resting, Clem means sleeping on the couch in the back snoring louder than music from CDs. 

Another hour, Clem isn't tired, but bored, almost nothing happened on their way to Jackson apart from a couple stops for gas and this one time when Clem got jumped by Walker, but nothing she couldn't handle. 

Chloe woke up and suddenly Clem didn't felt bored anymore, maybe because Chloe talked her into singing with her, that was until they heard shooting, it's pretty close to Jackson already and Ellie once told Clem about patrols, so it might be one of them. 

Clem stops and reaches for one of the bags and pulls out the bow and couple of arrows from the other one. "We're doing this?" Chloe asks and Clem shakes her head. "No, I'm doing this, you stay back, you still don't know how to use a gun correctly, so don't fight it." Clem refuses Chloe's offer to help her fight, and Chloe just nods while Clem opens the doors, but Chloe grabs her by the wrist. "But why?" Chloe asks and Clem shrugs. "Cause we want to be on their good side if it's patrol from Jackson," Clem explains and Chloe nods again and now Clem gets out and closes the door. 

Chloe sees as Clem crouches and disappears in the darkness of the woods. Clem looks around when she's inside of the woods and hears another shot then spots where it illuminated the area and starts heading there. 

Clem gets closer and closer and hears yelling, the closer she got the yelling was more hearable and understandable and from what she hears both sides suffered some losses. 

Clem makes sure to not get caught in the fight, she wants to help by getting behind enemy and cause havoc in there, but she needs to make sure that people she's intending to fight for are from Jackson, so she sneaks behind them and taps some older man on the shoulder almost making him jump out from his skin. "What the fuck?!" Man screams getting the attention of his companions, but none of them shots at her which is a good start. "Okay, you're from Jackson?" Clem asks and all three men nods, one woman is lying dead with a bullet in her head. "I'll help you, keep them distracted, and I'll walk behind their lines," Clem says and two of the men nods, but not the older one. "Why should we trust you?" He asks and Clem shrugs. "You either trust me or fight them alone, your call," Clem says and an older man finally nods. 

Clem walks away from them the same way she sneaked towards Jackson people and she goes carefully to prevent from being spotted and when she sees about four or so people behind some cover she starts thinking what she should do, the area is pretty well covered which will make sneaking easier, then she spots some kind of poles, people hanged on them by feet, all of them are gutted, she feels sick, but she knows also she can't do anything for them apart from taking revenge. 

She's getting closer and closer, but on the way there she spotted another three people, two women, and one man, they're trying to flank Jackson patrol, Clem is hiding in some kind of bar, or something like that, and knows that she has to do something or all of the trouble she might get into will go for nothing. 

Clem looks around and spots alcohol and some cloth, and she can swear she has a lighter. Clem quickly puts cloth in the bottle with alcohol and finds lighter in her backpack and lights up piece of cloth, fire lightly illuminating part of the building she's inside and part of her face, then she throws the Molotov cocktail towards three people, all of them get caught in the flames, the screams and smell makes Clem's stomach churn, but she ignores it because people shooting at the patrol probably saw from where Clem threw cocktail, so she takes a bow and pulls the arrow as hard as she can when she hears the steps and aims for the door. 

When flashlight attached to the rifle is pointed to her face, Clem lets go of the string sending the arrow directly to man's chest, but he still managed to shoot, but he hit the wooden pole Clem was hiding behind, but the bullet penetrated the wood and the bullet flew next to her neck, Clem knew that the rest heard the shooting, so she sprints towards broken window and jumps out. 

The people found their friend's body, apparently, he was called Frank, yet Clem didn't regret anything, because she's pretty sure they are the people responsible for the pole with gutted people hanged on them. 

Clem sneaked her way to the corner of the building she was hiding behind and looked on the street, one of them was running towards the building she was just in, most likely looking for her. 

Brunette remembers exactly layout of the bar, and she knows that she can use that knowledge. Clem quietly makes her way to the other window in the building and carefully looks inside and sees that woman is looking for her, and that she heads to the counter, Clem reaches for arrow, but she knows that she has to be careful how she uses them, she has only two left and four opponents and with that thought, she doesn't reach for the arrow and puts the bow back on her shoulder, but she looks around and sees a demolished building, so she takes a brick and aims for the head of the woman, by this time she's already checking if Clem is hiding behind counters. 

Clem just before throwing takes a quick look on the woman's arsenal, she has a rifle with scope and she holds it in one hand by the forestock, and in another hand a machete, Clem knows that she can shot woman, but she also knows that it'll be more useful on distances, not when she can just eliminate someone without wasting any resources. 

When the brick hits woman's head she stumbles and stops herself from falling by catching shelf that has bottles on it, Clem preps herself on the window frame and jumps over, then sprints towards the counter, woman aims at her from her rifle, but just before she pulled the trigger Clem jumped over the counter pushed the rifle aside and while she was still jumping over she kicked woman in the ribs making her hit the shelf behind her. 

Clem hits woman again in the face, making her drop the machete, which can help Clementine out. Clem turns to the machete and tries to grab it, but the woman was quicker than her and pulled Clem by the hair making her yelp in pain, woman, still holding Clem's hair, hits her in the stomach a couple of times, Clem tries to reach for the knife, but realizes that she doesn't have it, she left it with her stuff back at the school. 

Woman pushes Clem straight to the shelf with bottles, she breaks a couple of them leaving some cuts on Clem's face, Clem then hears another pair of footsteps, and she knows that it won't be that old man from earlier, but another enemy, Clem grabs a bottle and when woman pulls her back from the shelf Clem breaks the bottle on woman's face and with what's left of the bottle stabs woman in the stomach couple of times, covering her hands in blood, her corpse hitting the floor synced with another man entering the bar. 

Clem crouched down behind the counter just in time to dodge the pellets of the shotgun, shuttered wood from the counter and shelf lands on her back. Clem grabs her breath and thinks what to do, she looks on the limp body of the woman and sees the rifle, she can use it, but with that scope, it will be hard to aim. 

Clem moves a little to the right, steps getting closer by every second, Clem grabs the rifle just in time, man pointed the shotgun at Clem and she hit the barrel with the stock of the rifle and hit the man with the barrel of her rifle and pulled the trigger making blood splash on her entire body. 

Brunette spits with blood and runs outside through the door, bow in her hand and arrow in the other, when she walked out, the two left people were firing at the position of the Jackson people and Clem without waiting pulled an arrow and let the string letting the arrow fly, and it hits one of the two straight in the neck and before the other one can even turn his head to place from which arrow flew, the shooter isn't there. 

Clem predicted the man's movement, she was sure that he'll take cover and aim from where arrow that hit his friend flew, she was running around the building she was in before and from around the corner, man was already in position to fire at her previous position. 

Another arrow was already pulled so hard that bow was creaking slightly and when Clem let her finger off the string the arrow made a little sound when it was cutting through the air and finally hitting its target which was man's temple hitting it, Clem could hear skull cracking when arrow penetrated it. 

Clem was breathing heavily, she doesn't remember the last time she was so exhausted after a fight, but it didn't bother her, actually, it made her proud of herself that she managed to win it. Clem made her way to the bodies she hit with the arrows to check if she can use any of them, but sadly, she can't every one is broken. "It's over!" Clem yells loudly and even if it's dark she can see three figures standing up as she makes her way to them. 

"You killed them all?" One of the men asks and Clem nods. "Yeah. One of my hardest fights." Clem replies and an older man stands in front of her, he's a lot higher than she is. "Why you helped us?" He asks and Clem shrugs. "I and my sister have to get to Jackson, I have a friend there that thinks I'm dead, and I want to prove that I'm not," Clem explains and he nods. "Tell me the name, maybe I know him," Older man says and Clem helped them that far, she might as well be honest with them. "Her name's Ellie," Clem says and the older man nods. "Yeah, I know her. She lives with me, so I can lead you to her." The man says and now Clem realizes that Ellie mentioned him before. "Your name's Joel right?" Clem asks and the man nods. 

Clem is already on her way back to Chloe, the group took the body of their friend and said that they're heading to Jackson and that Joel will wait for Clem in front of gates. Clem is seeing the truck she drove in and Chloe is sitting on the hood of it. 

"I'm back." Clem calls out and Chloe jumps off the hood and crosses her arms. "You weren't coming back for long and I assumed the worst," Chloe says, and Clem can see that Chloe was nervous. "You can't kill me that easily." Clem jokes and Chloe rolls her eyes. "Yeah sure. So the people you helped, they're from Jackson?" Chloe asks and Clem nods and sits back in the driver seat and Chloe sits next to her not long after. "Yeah, I was actually lucky as I encountered a man that lives with her, he said that he'll wait for us before the gates and lead us to them." 

The longer they rode the more pain Clem felt, but she ignores it and just focuses on the road and music that is playing quietly. "Are you nervous?" Chloe asks, and that just makes it worse as Clem feels it now. "Thanks, Chloe, you had to say it, didn't you? I wasn't, but now I am." Clem says and Chloe pushes her on the shoulder lightly. "Don't worry. She'll understand, I'm sure." Chloe says and Clem shakes her head slightly in disagreement, after all, she was the one that told Ellie she will die. 

Chloe and Clem are in front of some gate, Joel approached them and said that they can leave the car before the gate and that no one will take it and Clem did what he said, and after that, she and Chloe followed him. 

While walking through streets of Jackson, she finds it more quiet and peaceful than Richmond, and she prefers it that way, she can just zone out and stop thinking, and not get bothered by the sounds around her, when she commented it Joel agreed with her. 

"It's here." Joel says and points to one house and that makes Clem even more nervous, she breathes in and out a couple of times and braces herself for whatever will happen after Joel, her, and Chloe will walk in.


	25. Chapter 25

"Joel, before we go inside, in what state Ellie came back?" Clem asks Joel sighs and shrugs. "Not sure what about yesterday, but she was crying when I was home, a lot, Dina is with her, at least she was, but I'm sure she's with her now too," Joel responds and Clme is feeling like an asshole for telling Ellie she'll die for sure. 

Chloe just now spotted something on her sister, her whole clothing was in the blood, and her face too, along with some cuts. "What the hell happened to you?" Chloe asks and Clem shakes her head. "I'll tell you, but not now," Clem promises and Chloe nods, Joel looks at Clem asking with his gaze if she's ready and she nodded. 

"I'm back kiddo." Joel informs Ellie with a raised voice and she mumbles something back. Clem looks at her, while Joel goes to his room, Chloe walks quietly behind her, Ellie sits on the couch and she's poking to the fireplace with a stick, now Clem is even more nervous. "Go to her, I'll wait." Chloe whispers and Clem nods, Ellie didn't hear them, but Clem doesn't see Dina anywhere. 

Clem steps carefully, if she'll tell Ellie she's alive, she might as well surprise her. 

When Clem reaches back of the couch, she just sits next to Ellie. "You remember when you told me that I can't be killed?" Clem asks with a smirk, and Ellie's eyes widen in surprise, when she processed who's sitting in front of her she wrapped her arms around her friend. "But how?" Ellie asks and lets go of Clem then frowns when she sees all the blood and cuts. "When I get rid of the rest of their soldiers, I was bleeding out I lost conciseness, but I can bet that Luke was around heard gunshots and came back with a couple of friends I thought that are dead and they patched me up, talking about those that I thought that died." Clem gestures towards Chloe and she goes inside the living room. 

"Who is she?" Ellie asks and before Clem could introduce Chloe she spoke up. "I'm Chloe, Clementine's sister." Then Ellie looked at Clem with a questioning look. "You have a sister?" Ellie asks and Clem nods with a smile. "I thought she died when I was eight, not my fault I didn't tell you about her," Clem explains and Chloe sits next to them. "Where's Dina?" Clem asks and Ellie points at some door. "In the bathroom." Ellie answers and Clem nods. 

"You still didn't explain how you survived, we were in the middle of nowhere." Ellie says and Clem already knows that Ellie won't like the idea of her leaving for battle with Delta. "Well, Luke and the rest brought me back to school, surprisingly, they shared their supplies to save me, well Sophie did as it was her call, but still," Clem explains and Ellie nods, then bathroom doors open. 

Dina stands right in front of doors and looks at Clem, then at Ellie. "Could any of you explain to me, what the hell is going on?" Dina asks and Ellie shrugs, she still doesn't know exactly what happened. "Let's say I'm tougher to kill than even I thought," Clem responds, then Dina looks at Chloe. "And who is she?" Dina asks now looking at Chloe. "My sister." Clem quickly says and Dina looks between Chloe and Clem. "You don't look exactly alike," Dina says, and walks towards the couch and sits too. 

"She got adopted, about a year before all of this shit." Clem explains and Dina nods. "Now, tell me two things, how you survived, and from where you got those cuts," Ellie says and Clem shrugs. "I don't know exactly how I survived, I killed last of them and I just wanted to accept my fate and leaned against a wall, I lost too much blood, I lost conciseness, then I woke up in school all patched up," Clem explains and Ellie nods. "And those?" Dina asks referring to cuts on Clem's face. 

"I and Chloe heard shots, I wanted to help, I was sure it was one of those patrols you once told me about, I was right and I asked Joel if they're from Jackson, they nodded, so I helped, I took care of the people patrol was fighting with, but one woman grabbed me by my hair, and pushed on a shelf, I broke a couple of bottles with my face." Clem explains 

"Did you clean it?" Dina asks and Clem shakes her head, and Dina sighs and gets up from the couch. "I'll clean it, just wait," Dina says and walks somewhere. "So you're staying in Jackson, right?" Ellie asks. 

One question. One question Clem was afraid of, she hoped that she'll be able to run from it, but she couldn't, what will be Ellie's reaction? Will she support it, or just scold her for being stupid? So many questions and no answers. 

"I can't stay." Clem responds and Ellie looks at her like she's stupid. "What do you mean? Our plan since you got thrown out from that goddamned school was getting here, and you are here now, where do you want to go?" Ellie asks with frustration in her voice and Clem sighs. "One of Delta men had a note on him, they want to get rid of me specifically, and they want to attack the school again," Clem explains and Ellie shakes her head. "You're not going there, Clem, for fuck's sake, because of them you almost died, if that soldier would shoot a little bit higher you'd be dead, I can't let you risk your life for them." Ellie disagrees and now Clem shakes her head. "Not your call, Ellie. I'm doing this as repayment, they gave their supplies to save me." Clem retorts and Ellie frowns. "They didn't, Sophie did, Minnie would've done it too, but think, would any of them do the same, just fucking think." Ellie tries to convince Clem, and well, she's not exactly wrong. "Did I say I'm doing it for all of them? Tell me, you'd prefer to see me dead, or seeing me just fight one more time? I plan to end this whole bullshit with Delta, help New Frontier win the war, then come back here, I want a little bit of peace." 

"Then I'm going with you." Ellie states and Clem shakes her head. "Nope, you're not going, one reason, I'm afraid you'll kill Mitch the second you'll see him. And besides, Dina will be mad at me, not you, and you know that when she's mad you should be afraid of her." Clem argues and Ellie shakes her head. "I'll go with you, I made myself a promise to keep you safe, and I'll keep it." Ellie retorts and Clem sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Is there anything I can do to convince you to not go with me?" Clem asks and Ellie looks at her piercing her soul. "Is there anything I can do to convince not to fight?" Ellie asks and when Clem shakes her head Ellie speaks up again. "Then you know my answer." 

"Show your face." Dina commands, she came back not that long ago, it was about a minute or so after the little argument between Clem and Ellie. "How many cuts do I have? I don't exactly feel my face." Clem asks while Dina starts cleaning Clem's cuts. "Three, one on your upper lip, another one on your left cheek, and last one on the right brow, and one on the brow will leave a scar, it's really deep, but the rest won't" Dina answers and Clem sighs, another scar to a collection. "It's just my fucking luck." Clem mumbles. 

"I'm done." Dina announces and sits back on the couch. Clem looks at Ellie, letting her know that they'll tell Dina about their plans now. Chloe whole time was listening, she really didn't want to interrupt as she didn't want to get caught in the crossfire of the earlier argument. 

When Chloe noticed what will happen she excused herself to go to the bathroom and Dina showed her the door to it. 

"Dina we have to talk." Ellie says and Dina listens to her. "Clem goes to a fight with Delta, she's protecting that school we were in. I'm going with her." Ellie states and waits for Dina's reaction, and her face shows no emotion what so ever. "Like hell you do." Dina disagrees. "If you want to have a slight chance to go with her, I'm going with you," Dina says and Ellie sighs, she knows that she won't be able to convince Dina. "If you say so. And Joel will go too, I can bet." Ellie agrees reluctantly. "And that's why?" Clem asks and Ellie runs her hand through her hair. "You think he'll let me go on a war? He almost never wanted me to leave Jackson without a good reason." Ellie explains and Clem nods. 

"You can be sure I'll go." Joel startles the three. "How long have you been listening?" Ellie asks with frustration and Joel walks down. "Long enough." 

"When do you want to leave?" Ellie asks and Clem thinks about that question and she doesn't want to get back on the road the same day. "Tomorrow?" Clem asks if everybody else agrees, Joel and Ellie do, but Dina doesn't. "I can't, Tommy told me that I have to replace someone on the patrol because that person is sick, but I can go the day after tomorrow," Dina says and Clem nods. "Fine by me, any of you have anything against?" Clem asks again and no one tells anything, then Clem nods and sighs. Tomorrow will be a long day.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know that in first chapter it's written that Ellie got her tattoo in Prescott, but it was before I even thought of implementing Jackson in this story, so she got a tattoo in Jackson, not Prescott

Ellie, Dina, Clem, and Chloe talked for a bit more, then they settled they should go to sleep, well Dina should as she rides out on a patrol next day morning, and Ellie is a little worried, because of what happened on Joel's patrol, but Dina assures her that everything will be fine. 

Dina was going to her house and Ellie told Chloe and Clem that they can sleep on the couch and she was going to her room, it was time to chose, either Clem sleeps on the floor because Chloe won't give up place on the couch, or she sleeps with Chloe and Clem chose the second option. 

With a groan Clem sits up and rubs her eyes a little, she didn't sleep well, not at all, her whole body is sore because Chloe couldn't sleep in one place, she was moving all the time, once making Clem falling off the couch, Clem reminds herself that she's whole covered in blood and makes sure she didn't stain Ellie's and Joel's couch and fortunately for her she didn't. 

Footsteps are hearable from upside the stairs, light ones, so Clem is sure it's Ellie and not Joel, Clem wasn't wrong, couple seconds after she heard the steps Ellie emerged from the darkness of the stairs. "You look like a mess." Ellie comments and Clem rolls her eyes. "Thank you, remind me to never sleep with her again." Clem half jokes and half begs and Ellie nods. "Sure, but it was your choice. Okay, now we have to kill the time, it's early, I can do some breakfast and if you want you can take a shower." Ellie says and Clem nods and starts heading to the doors Ellie pointed. "Should I wake her up?" Ellie asks before Clem can close the doors and Clem shakes her head. "No, you'll just waste your time, I managed to clean her room without waking her up." 

Clem took off her clothes and jumped under the shower and not long after she was as clean as she could, when she was out Clem stand in front of the mirror and looked at herself, cuts on her face easily seeable, she can already see Minnie's reaction to it, after checking her face she looks on the gunshot wound, stitches are still holding which surprises Clem after the beating she got yesterday, but it left bruises on her chest and abdomen. Another thing that surprises Clem is that she can still walk, pain is immeasurable, but she does what she can to ignore it. 

Going outside the bathroom Clem sees that Ellie is cooking something, she never told Clem that she can cook, Clem gets closer and Ellie is doing some eggs and bacon. "You could've told me that you can cook," Clem states scaring Ellie. "Don't scare me like that. And if you call cooking not burning whole house while boiling water, then yes I can cook." Ellie says and Clem rolls her eyes. "You can't be that bad." Clem retorts and sits at the table placed not far from the oven. "Tell that to Joel, I'll be surprised if he'll even eat what I'm cooking." Ellie jokes a little, even if it's true, he once got food poisoning, but it was a few years ago. 

"Does it hurt?" Ellie asks and puts one plate in front of the brunette while she puts another one on the other side of the table and sits down on a chair. Clem doesn't know what she exactly means. "What exactly? Cuts, gunshot wound, or bruises?" Clem asks for clarification with sarcasm in her voice. "Second one, if I remember correctly I never was shot, so I don't know how is it," Ellie explains and Clem nods. "Yep, a lot, even more, when you got hit right in the wound," Clem answers Ellie's question. 

Ellie and Clem made some small talk while they were eating and when Ellie started cleaning dishes, Clem decided it's time to wake Chloe up. Clem stands up and goes to the couch and quite literally pushes Chloe from it. "What the fuck!? Again?" Chloe asks in amusement and Clem helps her up while Ellie is still cleaning the dishes with a smirk. 

"Yep, again. And better learn to wake up in the morning or I'll wake you up that way every day." Clem warns and Chloe rolls her eyes, she thought it's a joke, but she understood it isn't when she saw the serious expression on Clem's face. 

"So what are we gonna do all day?" Chloe asks and Clem shrugs. "Don't ask me, normally, I'd probably wander around the area, but it has no use here as we're perfectly safe here," Clem says and Chloe looks at Ellie and she shrugs too. "I don't know, we could just watch something on TV unless you want to do something you can't normally do, then I can see what we can do," Ellie says and Clem starts thinking about it, she looks at Chloe and sees hers tattoo, then at Ellie and sees her tattoo, she wanted one from a long time, but she wouldn't trust anyone with a needle in Prescott. "Where can I get a tattoo?" Clem asks and Ellie thinks about that question, she already knows the answer, but she has to check if Clem is sure. 

"You sure?" Ellie asks and Clem nods. "Yes, I wanted one for about a year now, but you know I don't trust anyone in Prescott... Maybe apart from Tripp." Clem confirms and Ellie nods. "I know one guy, he's the one who made mine tattoo, but it's not Minnie's name, right? If it is, I'm not agreeing to it." Ellie warns and Clem shakes her head. "I'm stupid, but not to that degree," Clem says and Chloe nudges Clem. "Do you have an idea for it?" Chloe asks and Clem nods, she had time to think about it. "You have paper and some pencil?" Clem asked Ellie and she nodded and brought what Clem asked for, Clem started drawing and sometime later she showed her idea to Ellie and Chloe. Her idea is an ornamented skull with a flower in the eye socket with another flower under, the one inside of the skull is red, while the one lower is blue, leaves coming out of both flowers are shaded as well as the skull. 

Joel was awake not long after, Ellie told him that he has leftovers from breakfast in the kitchen, but he said he's good, so Ellie wasn't wrong with her cooking skills. "You have some plans?" Joel asks as he sips on the water in his cup. "Yeah, Clem gets a tattoo and I'll show her the guy that done mine and wait for her, Chloe will probably tag along," Ellie explains and Joel nods, Ellie thought that he might argue, but he doesn't. "As long as you don't gettin' yourself one, I'm fine with it," Joel says, but he clearly will say something more. "Just from curiosity, how old are you?" Joel asks Clem and she shrugs. "I'm not exactly sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm sixteen." Clem answers and Joel nods again. "You're seventeen, it's already November. I checked." Ellie says Clem's birthday is on October, 17th to be exact. Clem nods and corrects herself to Joel. "Okay, you're fighting too good for your age." Joel jokes and ends his water. 

"Well if you want I can give you something else to wear, you know, he might not want to work on you when you'll go there all stained in blood." Ellie says and Clem shakes her head, she has her own clothes. "I'm fine, we just have to go to my truck, I got everything what's ours from Prescott, apart from your clothes," Clem explains and Ellie nods, she won't question why Clem got everything out of Prescott, she's sure Clem will use those things to keep the school going for some time. 

The three walked firstly to the truck and Clem changed inside, she put on some jeans, white tank top and blouse over it. "It was some time when I saw you in tight jeans." Ellie jokes and Clem rolls her eyes, she feels kind of uncomfortable in this outfit, but the rest of clothes are kind of dirty, with blood, Clem didn't care much to clean anything apart from underwear. "So, we're ready to go?" Chloe asks and both Ellie and Clem nods in a union. 

"Does it hurt?" Clem asks both Ellie and Chloe and both of them nod. "Yeah, a little bit, but if you could fight with a gunshot wound in your abdomen and survive the blood loss, it'll be nothing for you," Ellie assures, but Clem isn't afraid of pain, she knows it well, too well. "You want only one? This guy, he won't charge you for it in any way, he's happy if he can just tattoo someone." Ellie asks and Clem nods, she'll move to Jackson sooner or later, so if Clem will want to get another one she'll be able to. "One is enough for now." Clem answers 

"It's here, you're talking with him, it was your idea." Ellie announces and Clem nods. Clem gets closer to the door and knocks on it. 

About half a minute passes until the door gets open, man opening them is tall, and old, his grey hair and long beard makes him look like he didn't cut them for at least couple of months, but Clem is pretty sure it was his choice. Man eyes Clem and looks behind her and sees Chloe and Ellie. "Hey, Ellie." He welcomes and his gaze is at Clem again. "So, who are you?" Man asks and Clem looks him in the eyes. "Ellie told me you could give me a tattoo." Clem says and man chuckles. "How old are you? 15? I ain't givin' tattoos to kids." Man says and Ellie clears her throat to catch his attention. "Nick, stop, we both know you're just playing," Ellie asks and Nick just laughs and shakes Clementine's hand. "Nick, you?" Nick introduces himself and Clem just smiles before giving an answer. "Clementine." 

Nick let Clem, Ellie and Chloe inside. "But seriously now, how old are you?" Nick asks and Clem answers telling him she's seventeen. "Well, you look younger, to be honest, but I never saw you around here, you new?" Nick asks and Clem nods. "Sort of, tomorrow I'll be gone again, but I'll probably be back in a month or two," Clem answers his question and he nods. "So you want a tattoo... You have a design?" Nick asks and Clem nods and pulls out a folded piece of paper with her sketch from earlier. "Good work, kid, I'm impressed, will it have any colors, or is it just black?" Nick asks another question and Clem shows him what should be colored and what not. 

Clem and Nick had gone to his room, he had everything he needed, ink, tattoo gun, etc. "So before we start, do you have a reason to have a tattoo? It ain't a thing you'll get rid of whey you'll get bored." Nick asks and Clem nods but is reluctant if she wants to tell him, it's about cuts on her wrist. "I'll tell you, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone," Clem says and he promises and she rolls up her sleeve. "I want to cover those," Clem explains and he just nods, no questioning, he just points where she has to sit. 

Machine was buzzing against her arm, slowly making her sketch appear on her arm, Nick looked focused, and Clem didn't even budge, and Nick promised to make tattoo cover all of her cuts, none of them will be seeable anymore, and it was the point from the start, Clem isn't sure how long it took, but more than two hours for sure, when Nick was done she couldn't stop looking at his work, it was perfect, it was even better than her sketch, and Nick kept his promise none of the cuts are visible. 

"So, you like it?" Nick asks and Clem nods immediately a smile appears on his face. "Okay, for about a month you shouldn't expose it to the sun, and definitely don't put in water for about a month too," Nick warns and Clem nods, she'll make sure to keep to those rules. "Thank you, Nick, really." Clem thanks and he waves it off. "Not a problem kid, if you'll want another one you know where to find me," Nick says and Clem nods, maybe someday she'll get another one. "Okay, you will need to find your own way to door, I need to clean this," Nick says and Clem nods and walks out of the room, her sleeve still rolled up, it itches but she won't scratch it, she's too afraid it'll mess up Nick's work. When Clem walked out she saw that Ellie and Chloe were chatting on Nick's couch and both looked at Clem's forearm, her tattoo started a little bit lower than her elbow and almost touches her hand. 

"It's awesome!" Chloe exclaims, she runs up and grabs Clem's arm to take a closer look at the tattoo and she doesn't notice her cuts, there are marks from them, but the way Nick made the skull, makes cuts look like they're part of the tattoo. "Satisfied?" Ellie asks as she takes closer look too. "Very much. Okay, we can go." Clem says and both Ellie and Chloe nods. Clem rolls down her sleeve and all three of them walk out from Nick's house and they're heading to Joel's and Ellie's house.


	27. Chapter 27

When they got back to Ellie's and Joel's house, the three saw Joel washing dishes after he ate eggs and bacon that Ellie made earlier. "I told you it's good!" Ellie half-yelled to make Joel hear and they heard him mumble something. "So now what? It's still early." Chloe whines, Clem doesn't actually know why she wants to get back on the road that fast, it wasn't bad when there were only two people in the car, but tomorrow? They'll have five people in the car, plus three full bags with food, weapons, ammo, and clothes. 

"How many times I have to tell you that I don't know?" Ellie asks slightly annoyed and Chloe shrugs. When Chloe walks away and sits on the couch Ellie pulls Clem to the side. "You want her to fight Delta? I can bet she can't even shoot." Ellie asks and Clem nods, basically agreeing to both things Ellie told. "Yep, and yep she can't shoot, but I'll teach her," Clementine responds and Ellie nods, even if she's not happy with the idea she trusts Clem, and even if Chloe won't learn how to shoot Chloe will be the one to die for it. 

In reality, Clementine doesn't like the idea of Chloe fighting with them, but it's not like she can get rid of Chloe right now, Clementine didn't want Ellie to fight, neither Dina or Joel, but she had to agree, she's not sure if she should be happy to have friends, that care for her that much that are ready to die for her, if she can call Joel a friend, he goes with Clem just to make sure that Ellie won't get killed. 

"Okay, I have to go, Tommy asked me to help him with something, he didn't tell me what exactly." Joel announces and Ellie just nods, then Joel just picks up his jacket and walks out. "We could just watch something on TV, we have some CDs." Ellie offers and both Clem and Chloe nod. 

Hours slowly slipped away, Joel came back earlier, he started to watch movies with the three, they didn't talk as they were too focused on movies. 

First person that gave up on watching another movie was Joel, he claimed that he needs to get some rest before tomorrow, he also mentioned that he told Tommy about their plans, next person was Chloe, she just fall asleep on the couch, now it's only Clem and Ellie. 

Using the occasion that no one is hearing Ellie wants to talk about her plan of defending the school. "Tell me, do you have any kind of plan to defend that school?" Ellie asks and Clem thinks for a while, she has some idea, but she'll need to take a look at the plans of the school, to know what is where and how she can use certain parts of the school. "Well, the general idea is to hold off the initial attack of Delta in the courtyard using some of the tables as covers as well as those walls in front of the school, when they start pushing as out we retreat to school, every person that is the best with fighting will lead their own squads." Clem shares her idea and Ellie thinks that it isn't that bad, but it's far from perfect, or even good. 

"I'll help you any way I can, but remember that you're not alone with this." Ellie tells and Clem nods, she knows she isn't alone with it, but if something will go wrong it'll be only on her and not on Ellie or anyone else. 

"When Dina is coming back, like an exact hour?" Clementine asks and Ellie nods, she knows which hour she should be back. "Well, something around first in the morning, but it could be later." Ellie answers and Clem nods, Ellie told it was in the morning, but she didn't tell her it was going to be so early. "You're even going to sleep?" Clem asks, she's sure that Ellie will go to meet Dina as soon as she'll reach Jackson, and Ellie shakes her head. "Nope." Ellie answers and Clem nods, it's not like she expected something else. 

When another movie ended, Ellie looked at the watch on the shelf and said that Dina should be back in a few minutes, so she should go out, and Clem tagged along, she doesn't want to sit alone in the empty house. 

Ellie and Clem started walking to another gate, not the same that Clem and Chloe got in, the one Clem got in was east and Dina was coming back with west one, when they were passing by some church Clem heard loud music and lights still lit inside of it, Ellie told her that there's a party there, Clem smiled at the thought, people here are acting the same way as it was before walkers, you're completely safe until you'll go outside the walls. 

They reached the gate and they're waiting for Dina, there are a couple of people waiting too, probably waiting for their close ones too. 

When the patrol group is late for about ten minutes Ellie is pacing from one place to another, just to try and calm herself down, it's not only that Dina is out, but that Dina was kidnapped not that long ago, and Ellie doesn't want it to repeat. "Try to calm down," Clem asks, she didn't mean it to sound like she's annoyed with Ellie's nervousness, but it did. "You're serious?" Ellie asks and Clem shakes her head. "What I mean is that nothing happened to Dina, and she'll be back in a few minutes," Clem explains and Ellie nods a little and leans against the same wall that Clem is leaned onto. 

"How you do it?" Ellie asks and Clem looks at her, wanting Ellie to explain what exactly she means. "To stay calm I mean? Whenever we were fighting you seemed calm, when you got shot? You were calm, of course, you cried, but I'm pretty sure it was kinda my fault or leaving Minnie at that school even if you know that Delta is hunting for them? You don't seem to be concerned by this." Ellie clarifies and that question makes Clem think, and the worst thing is, that she doesn't know herself. 

"I don't know... Maybe I'm numb to it, well, I can't answer that." Clem replies and Ellie nod, now Clem can't stop thinking about it, she has to find an answer to that question. 

Five minutes later a person on the watchtower whistled, Clem didn't know what it means, but she can guess it means that patrol is coming back since Ellie's face lit up like a chrismas tree. 

"She's back?" Clem asked and Ellie nodded, both of them get closer to the gates and when they opened four people on horses ride inside of the city, from Ellie's knowledge everyone came back. 

Clementine decided to give Ellie a little space, so when Ellie was going after the horses Clem just waited for her and Dina. 

A few minutes later Clem saw Ellie and Dina coming back, little smiles on their faces. "Can we come back? It's freezing out here." Clem asks and both Ellie and Dina nods. 

The walk back to the house was quick and silent, if they wouldn't count music still blasting from the church, and when they reached the house, Clem reminded herself that last night Dina was going to her own house, and now she's sleeping in Ellie and Joel's house, but Clem decided to stay quiet about that when she saw that there's no way in hell that she'll be able to sleep on the couch, not only Chloe already took all of it for herself, but Clem wouldn't want to sleep with Chloe ever again. 

"Ellie?" Clem calls out and Ellie turns to her. "Yep?" Ellie says and Clem sighs. "You have some blankets?" Clem asks and Ellie nods then walks upstairs and comes back with a few of them. 

"Thanks." Clem says, Ellie nods and walks upstairs with Dina both of them saying 'goodnight'. Clem puts blankets on the floor in a place where maybe no one will step on her and lies down, it's more comfortable than she thought, definitely more comfortable than laying with Chloe. 

Clem falls asleep not long after.


	28. Chapter 28

Clem has another nightmare, it's the same as usual, about AJ, she practically jumps on her feet from under her blankets, she wants to scream, but she knows she can't, she'll just wake other people up. She walks to the kitchen and drinks some water and tries to calm herself down, images from that ranch are still plaguing her mind, and no matter how hard she tries she can't get rid of them, she knows that she'll never get rid of them. 

Still breathing heavily Clem looks outside the window in the kitchen, sun starts to rise, half of it is already above the horizon. It's just a matter of waiting an hour or two before they can start going back to school, another 30 hours of driving, more actually as Clem has plans to stop at one town to look for supplies. 

Clem goes back to the living room and sits on the blankets she slept on and doesn't know what to do, she has actually nothing to do, if she was smart enough she'd take her things that are still in school, she had her notebook and pencils there, if she'd have it here maybe she could try and sketch something just to kill the time, but now? She can only stare at the floor for the next hour. 

She was actually staring at the floor for an hour, footsteps on the second floor broke her of her trance, not long after Ellie and Dina walked down. 

"You're already awake?" Dina asks in disbelief and Clem nods a little, she's still shaken by the nightmare. 

"Another nightmare?" Ellie asks, she's the only person to ever see her having a nightmare. "Yeah," Clem replies and shakes her head to forget about the nightmare, she can't think about it now and stands up. 

"Is Joel awake?" Clem asks. 

"Yep, he said that he'll gather mine and his things, we only have to wake Chloe up." Ellie answers and Clem nods. 

"Try not to throw her off the couch." Ellie requests before shorter girl reaches the couch and Clem nods, she already has an idea to wake Chloe up. 

Clem makes her way to the couch, Ellie goes to the kitchen and pours herself a cup of water while Dina watches Clem with amazement. 

Clem grabs Chloe by the shoulders and shakes her as hard as she can screaming that they're getting attacked and in just one moment Chloe was up. "So you can get up if you want to," Clem says with a smirk and Dina just giggles and Ellie rolls her eyes. 

"So, they aren't attacking us?" Chloe asks still slightly scared and Clem shakes her head. 

"Nope. But you don't like when I threw you off the couch, so I found another way of waking you up." Clem jokes and Chloe sighs with annoyment and runs her hand through her hair and sits down. 

"So when we're going?" Dina asks and goes to Ellie. "When Joel will get down we can go to the truck, but fitting in there, oh it'll be fun. We will not only need to make stops for gas but also to stretch our legs." Clem responds and Ellie looks at Clem wanting an answer about stretching their legs part. 

"Well, we have three full duffel bags with clothes, ammo, weapons, and food, so I'm already feeling sorry for anyone that's sitting in the back," Clem explains and before anyone else can say anything more, another pair of footsteps can be heard and not long after Joel appears from the stairs one backpack on his back and the other one in his hand. 

"Did I miss somethin'?" Joel asks as he hands backpack in his hand to Ellie, Clem shakes her head while Ellie nods. 

"Yeah apparently there might be a problem with fitting all of us in the truck, Clem has three full bags of things and I don't think it'll be comfortable to sit in the back with bags there too." Ellie complains and Joel sighs. 

"But you know it's a pickup truck, right? We can just throw the bags in the back and there'll be a place for us." Joel says and Clem nods slowly, Clem didn't think of that really. 

All of them walked outside the house, Dina had to left them for a couple of minutes as she was going for her backpack and Clem said that she'll find some for herself and Chloe along the way, even if she has backpack back at the school, it's not in great condition and she wanted a new one from some time now. 

When they reached the truck it was untouched. Joel and Ellie moved bags to the back and sit inside, Dina, Clem, and Chloe were already inside, Clem is driving, Joel is sitting in passager sit and the rest is sitting in the back. 

"So, we can go? I'm not going back if we forgot anything." Clem asks and no one speaks up so, she turns on the truck and starts driving away from Jackson, they have a full tank of gas, so it should be enough for some time, and with some hope, it'll be enough to reach that city where Clem wants to look for supplies, but it's over one thousand kilometers from Jackson. 

"Do we have some other CD?" Chloe asks, well Clem isn't surprised she asks, they listened to it for over 30 hours. 

"No, but I prefer to listen to it then driving in silence." Clem replies and her sister sighs, Dina gasps and starts going through her backpack, some minutes after she pulls out a couple of CDs. 

Dina hands CDs to Clem. "They're all with music, I took them as I didn't know if you had any," Dina says and Clem nods and puts one of the CDs in the radio and some pop music starts playing. 

"Just from curiosity when we're stopping for gas?" Joel asks and looks at Clem. 

"When it'll run out, we have a full tank, so it'll be a while before it'll run out, and we're not stopping if we don't have to." Short girl explains and Joel nods and starts looking at the road again. 

They were driving through the woods surrounding Jackson, Dina was lying on Ellie's shoulder, Chloe was looking outside the window watching as they passed the trees and Joel was sleeping, he referred to it as 'killing time' Clem didn't mind any of it as long as they didn't scream or interrupt her, they could do anything they want, she just wants to reach school in one piece.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, this whole note is just two questions, first one is that I'm thinking about changing walkers with runners, clickers, and bloaters from the last of us since I thinks that they're more interesting than walkers, you can't sneak around a walker as you could around a runner or clicker, plus walkers are slow and make almost no effort to kill in small groups, but a small pack of runners that would attack you from nowhere it'll be a lot harder to fight them off since they can run and are a lot more aggressive than walkers, so I ask if it's okay to change it now? I didn't put them here from the start since I didn't play the last of us, I played it and completed it about a month ago. The other question is something far less important, but it would kind of make it more detailed since I want to use real names of weapons and not 'assault rifle' or 'pistol' so I'm asking if it would bother anyone for me to use real names of weapons? (if there won't be any feedback I'll just do what I wrote here.)

On the way to that city it was called Mitchell, they stopped for fuel only once, they probably didn't have to, but Clem was worried that it'll run out and that they'll have to leave the car behind while looking for fuel, Clem was going to look for supplies with Ellie, while the rest was supposed to hide in one of the houses and wait for Clem and Ellie, it was an evening when they reached the city. 

Girls got out of car and Clem pointed at the house in which Joel, Dina, and Chloe will be hiding in, she picked the one that looked the best to defend themselves in if something happened, they didn't know if someone is there but they want to look for anything useful, Clem has a hope to find some medicine, it'll definitely help, the winter is closing in and if someone will get sick they'll have medicine for it. 

Ellie took two pistols, a bow, and a rifle, Clem took a bow and Ellie took the rifle, they hoped they won't have to use it, walkers won't make the job easier, the plan is to look for any supplies, and go back, it's not complicated, but if something will happen, the rest of the small group will wait in the house and if in the morning neither Ellie or Clementine will come back they can and go look for them, and all agreed to plan, Joel only asked why Clem and Ellie are going and not someone else and Clem explained it by telling that she has experience in working with Ellie and Joel just nodded. 

Ellie and Clem started to walk inside the city while Joel hid the car and the rest of the group in the house. "What are you hoping to find?" Ellie asks, focused on what's happening around them and Clem shrugs. "Not sure, but as long as it's the medicine I'm satisfied," Clem replies and looks around, and she had an idea to cover more of terrain while not going that much and it was less likely they'd bump into someone. "Ellie, boost me up there," Clem says and Ellie nods, they walk to the building Clem pointed and the auburn-haired girl had done what brunette asked her to do, Clem then pulled Ellie up too, and not they were going on rooftops and jumping from one to another looking around. 

"So, how are things between you and Minnie?" Ellie starts a conversation, Clem doesn't mind, but she isn't sure if she should lie or be honest, but after some time she picks the second option. 

"Good. Very good to be honest." Clem replies and she already knows that Ellie isn't satisfied with that answer. "Tell something more, I'm bored and I promise not to laugh." Ellie says and Clem sighs, she can tell her, what bad can happen. 

"Before I left the school, she stopped me and said that she loves me, I kissed her and told that I love her too." Clem continues and Ellie nods, they're now seeing a staircase that will lead them to the roof of an apartment block, they climb it and Ellie thinks about what Clem said, she believes that Minnie might actually be honest with her feelings, but the thing is that it may change if she'll find out about Clementine's past. 

Slowly they're making their way up the staircase, they're not in a hurry since Clem looks through every window to check if someone's inside, but it doesn't seem like that, yet she still checks. "Clem, don't understand me wrong, I want you to be happy, but how will Minnie react when she'll find out about your past? She doesn't know much about you, she might think you're someone you aren't, what I'm saying is that you should tell her some things, not all of them, but something that will give her a clear picture on who you are." 

Clem listens to Ellie's words and she actually knows it might be true, she doesn't say anything, but she knows she'll have to tell Minnie who she was, and some of the things she did. 

They reach the top of the building and both of them looks around, both of them sees reinforcements made of wood and barbed wire about a huge part of the city, they were in outskirts and now they're inside the city but not inside the zone, and they were sure that there were people walking on the streets there. "Ellie, take a closer look at that zone there, I'll check there," Clem says and Ellie nods, she looks through the scope of her rifle while Clem goes to a building that would lead to a staircase inside of the block, people there have guns on them and don't look like innocent people, rifles and clothes they wear make Ellie sure they're some kind of bandits of some sort. 

"Ellie, come here." Clem commands with a cold tone, Ellie tightens her grip on the rifle to shoot if she'll have to and make her way to Clem, when she reaches the building she sees four bodies, all of them were shot many times, the worst thing is that the bodies aren't only of adults, there are two teens, fourteen if Ellie had to guess, bodies look fresh too. 

"They're not nice people." Clem says and Ellie isn't sure if she jokes or not. 

"I took a closer look, all of them there have a weapon on them, I counted around thirty people probably more in the buildings if there's anything valuable left in that city then it's there" Ellie informs and Clementine nods and thinks what to do next, she has a plan. 

"You go back to Joel and the rest, I'll sneak in there and steal what I can and go back with sewers." Clem commands and Ellie shakes her head, she can't believe that brunette thinks that she'll let her do that. 

"I'm not leaving you again." 

"You won't leave me, like I said earlier, wait for me, I'll be back before the morning." Clem promises and Ellie takes a deep breath, she doesn't want to leave Clem alone to basically sneak to some scums, risking her life for some meds, but she also knows that she won't change Clem's mind either. 

"Just come back, I lost you once, I can't again." Ellie says and Clem nods and promises. 

Ellie still reluctantly makes her way back while Clem looks around to plan her next moves carefully, she doesn't want to break her neck before even reaching the zone, she saw a building shorter than the one she's on actually and from there she can easily maneuver through other rooftops to reach the zone, the problem will be that those rooftops inside of the zone probably will be watched, but there aren't better option, so she takes a run, jumps and lands on the other building and continue her way to the zone, she already knows it'll be a long and exhausting day.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so as I told I'm doing those two things I asked about in the last chapter.
> 
> Also, I want to tell about Clementine's backstory from before meeting Ellie since it won't be really explained or mentioned. Clem was born in the apocalypse, in the QZ in Georgia, Chloe was adopted one year before the QZ was overrun by hunters and infected, they had a babysitter since both parents of Clem and Chloe were soldiers, when the QZ was overrun Clem, Chloe, and the babysitter was hiding in the treehouse, when they were out of food both Chloe and the babysitter went to the house for more food and left Clementine alone in the treehouse, they got attacked by infected and babysitter got bit and told Chloe to run, and she did, Lee found Clem right after killing the infected in the house and the rest is more or less the same as the walking dead games go, but there are infected, not walkers, and they didn't have to make sure the brain is destroyed. Ellie's story is the same, and the whole story happens 25 years after the outbreak.

Clementine decided to wait on the roof she was on for some time, it was getting darker and she wanted to exploit it to her advantage, she'll have less time, but it won't be as easy to spot her, in attempt to sneak in. 

When it was dark enough for Clementine she jumped to the next building, it was another apartment block, and she felt a strong pain in her abdomen and because of the pain she let go of the ledge, panic filled her, but before she hit the pavement, she managed to grab a windowsill, breathing heavily she tried to open the window but it wouldn't budge, so she broke the glass and got inside. 

Now she wishes she hit the pavement, screeches of runners fill the small apartment, and clicking of the clickers, she looks around and sees a mug, sneaking to it she sees that one runner is already closing in, mug in her hand she swings at the runner and hits it repetitively until it drops dead, she would pull out her FNX-45, but it would drag attention of the bandits in the safe zone, another two runners are charging at her, the first one in the range she kicks in the stomach sending it to the ground and the other one she hits with the elbow in the face, the other one already standing up. 

She had about three seconds to do something if one of them would pin her to the wall it'd be over for her. Clem runs out of the kitchen of the apartment to the living room, runners right behind her, she noticed a body, rotten one with a baseball bat on it, she swiftly picked it up and with whole her strength punched one runner in the face with it, she could hear runner's neck snapping, before she could punch the other one pinned her to the wall she held him back with her whole strength and pushed him of herself then punched him in the ribs to make it curl up a little and finish it off with final blow to its face. 

She was breathing heavily from the fatigue and she heard many footsteps running to her, she sprinted to the kitchen and looked out the window looking if she could get out that way, she couldn't get back the same way she got inside, she sprinted back to the living room and looked outside the window in there, there was a much smaller building she could jump to, she opened the window and looked at the entry doors to the apartment she is and she saw three clickers, charging at her, there was no way to fight them off so she swiftly got outside and jumped on the building. 

When she was on the roof of the other building she laughed from the stress and sat down, trying to rest a little, her heart was racing in her chest, but she managed to run away even if it was close she did it. 

Taking another deep breath in Clementine stands up and looks around, her plan didn't work out really well, but actually it put her in an even better situation than before, she's just one jump from the safe zone, so she does, from now she can't get caught, if there are actually more than thirty people she doesn't have high chances of getting out of here alive. 

Clem made sure she won't be spotted and took a look around the zone, people still patrolling around in small groups, but her attention was caught to the police station and hospital, if there was anything valuable in here she'd start looking there, she wouldn't mind more ammo if she could find some, she already have loads of it, but it's never too much, but the problem is that she won't be able to get there the same way she got inside the safe zone, she has to walk down to the streets. 

While sneaking down she heard muffled voices, probably some people were inside, but if she could help it, she won't kill anybody. When Clem was down she looked around the place and saw that she can go unnoticed through the street if she was quick enough, and she had done just that, now in another alleyway, she hears another couple of voices, it sounded like somebody fought, so she took that opportunity to sneak by them, all of them were too much caught up in the fight to notice. 

Now she just has to make her way past one street and she could get inside the police station, but this street was much more patroled, she has around ten seconds before next patrol appears, she makes a run for it and nearly got caught, right when she got inside the alley. Taking a quick look at the entry doors of the police station she noticed two armed people guarding the entrance, so Clem decided to take a look around the building with the hope of finding another way in. 

At the back of the building was an open window, Clem quickly got inside and listened for any signs of danger, there were no footsteps, so she walked out of something that looked like some kind of closet. There was another guard inside that was asleep, she sneak past him, to the place in which cells were in, she heard quiet sobbing and cries, she got in closer and in the darkness, she saw eight people locked up in the cell when they spotted her they backed to the corner, she considered her a threat, Clem can see that they were through a lot. 

Clem raised her hands up in the air and closed in, she wanted them to know that she's no threat, but while closing in she kicked a bucket, and alerted the guard in the hall. "Is someone there?" He called out and Clem heard footsteps closing in, she took out her bow and pulled an arrow. When he walked inside and Clem was sure that his body wouldn't fall in the hall she let the arrow go hitting him right in his neck and he started choking and he died a few seconds after. 

She looked at the group inside the cell, she wanted to help them, she saw five adults and three children, all of them looked around fourteen, she wanted to help them, no one deserves fate like that. "I'll help you. Do you know where the keys are?" Clem asks, she'll do her best to save them. They still look terrified, but one of them pointed the guard she just killed, so she approached his body, took a magazine of his rifle, it was a standard AK, but she had a few of those at her disposal back at the car and the rest of her group. She picked the keys and get closer to the cell doors and opened them. 

Clem put the bow back on her back and raised her hands again. "I don't want to hurt you, my name's Clementine. I want to help you get out of here." Clem says softly, some of the people looked young, a little older than her, one of them looked a little bit younger than Kenny or Joel, he was the oldest of the whole group. 

"Why?" The oldest asks and Clem doesn't really know, she feels sorry for them probably. 

"I see that you went through a lot, I'm not the one that helps a lot, but when most people I meet are fucks that try to kill me when they try I don't feel like helping them, and besides you look like good people." Clem explains and the man nods. 

"We're trusting her?" 

"She seems nice enough." 

"Her looking nice won't get us anywhere, what if she's with them?" 

"She just killed one of them, I don't think she's with them." 

"Enough. She's our only chance to get us out of here, she's the only one crazy enough to sneak in here." Older man stopped his group from a quiet argument. Everyone agreed with him, Clem is their only chance. 

"What's your plan?" Older man asks. 

"Well, my plan was to escape through sewers it can still work, but I won't be able to take you further without another car, I know a community that could take you in, but you don't have a car... I'll think of something later. But I have to find some medicine, as much as I can, you know where I can find some?" Clem asks and one of the kids nods. 

"One of them said that they have the whole stash of those in the hospital, in the reception, why do you need them?" She asks and Clem smiles as one of them scolds her for her curiosity, she can tell them, they seem to be helpful so far. 

"I have a big fight coming, I have to find medicine if someone will get hurt we'll need them. Okay, you'll hide in the sewers and wait for me and I'll take the medicine and join you, from there we can think of getting you all a car then me and my friends will lead you to this community I told you about." Clem explains and the kid nods. 

"I'll go with you." A young man offers, Clem wanted to say no, but he seems like he won't take a no for an answer, so she reluctantly agrees. 

Right before the hospital Clem looked for a secluded sewers hatch and lead the group inside leaving them there and going to the hospital with a man named Jack that volunteered earlier. 

Going inside the hospital was easier than to the police station, there were no guards around, at least there was none at the entrance. When they got in they immediately headed for the reception and inside of the few drawers they found a lot of medicine, of all sort, they will have a good use from it, but there was a problem, Clem didn't have a backpack, but she found one laying around and she started packing the meds in it, it was a military backpack, a one she wished to found it seemed in good condition, so she can take it without fear it'll fall apart any moment. 

"What the hell is happening?!" A bandit walked out of the bathroom and started to reach for his AK, but Clem was a little faster and pulled out her pistol and shot the man four times in the chest, all of them will be here any moment, not they have to hurry up, Jack helped Clem pack the meds and as she closed the backpack, bandits charged in the hospital and started shooting and they took cover, Jack reached for the rifle that man dropped. 

Clem looked for an exit and spotted a little window in the bathroom to which doors were slightly open. "Okay, I'll cover you and you'll get out that window, I'll be right behind you." Clem commands and the man nods, when they stopped shooting and started to close in Clem started to shoot at them gaining needed time for Jack to escape, she managed to shot one of them in the shoulder before she had to take cover, Jack was already climbing to the window, when he was out, Clem made a run to the window and barely fitted through it, bullet right above her. 

"We have to run, to that sewer, fast!" Clem said and Jack nodded, they started to run to the same entry they lead the rest in, and bandits were too preoccupied with the hospital to notice them getting in, they closed the hatch and climbed down the ladder. 

"It was close." Jack says trying to catch his breath and Clem nods. 

"Almost everyday for me to be honest." Clem jokes and the rest approach them. 

"What happened?" Older man asks and Clem explains the situation to him, and without waiting for any second longer they started to walk outside the safe zone with sewers. 

Clem got to know the rest there was Jade a tall redhead with long hairs with freckles on her nose, Kate an average height brunette, Eliza one of three girls a raven-black hair, Zoe dark-skinned brunette, Alice a pale and short blonde, Darius, a boy with a short trimmed blonde hair, Jack, the one that helped Clem, a red-headed man he was really tall, the older man was called Elliot, he told them the short story how they ended up in Mitchell, apparently they were a part of small community that got attacked by Delta, they're probably the only one that didn't get kidnapped or killed, Clem felt a need to tell them that she plans on fighting with Delta. 

"I and my friends are leading defense against Delta, it's the fight that will happen, I helped my girlfriend's friends that got kidnapped by them, and I got almost killed for it, but I regret nothing." Clem informs and she can hear a disappointed sigh from Jack when he heard that Clem has a girlfriend, but Elliot looked at her and nodded. 

"We want to help you." Elliot announces and everyone agrees with him, Clem can't accept their help, they don't owe her anything. 

"I can't accept it, you don't owe me a thing." Clem refuses, but Elliot smiles and puts his hand on her shoulder. 

"Let's say we do it so no one else will have to suffer. Even if we do it because we want to help you." Ellie assures with a smile and Clem sighs. 

"I won't be able to change your minds will I?" Clem asks and everybody says that she won't be able to do that so she agrees. 

"But what about the car? It's over a thousand kilometers from here." Clem asks, they were here longer, maybe they know something. 

"Well, they said that they have some cars stored in the junkyard outside the safe zone, maybe we'll find something there?" Jade suggests and Clem thinks about this, they'll watch it for sure, but with someone that can fight, they could take them by surprise and just take some cars by force. 

"Not bad idea Jade, okay, Jack give me that AK." Clem commands and he listens. "Okay, we'll take them by surprise, we'll attack from the darkness, but does any of you how to fight somewhat decent?" Clem asks and both Jack and Elliot nods, Clem hands the AK to Elliot and she gave the bow to Jack while she will be fighting with her FNX-45. 

"The rest will wait for us in the house my friends hide in, go behind me, and don't hold your weapons, we don't want them to open fire at you." Clem says before climbing up the ladder and everyone nods. 

When they got out, Clem looked around trying to recognize the area they're in and she sees the building where she fought the infected in, it was hard to spot since it's completely dark now, but she managed, trailing back they found the house the rest was hiding in, Clem in front of the group. 

When they were closing in, Joel, Ellie, Dina, and Chloe get out of the house, holding people behind Clem at gunpoint. "Lower your guns, they'll help us back at the school." Clem says and they do reluctantly. 

"Who the hell are they and how did you meet them?" Ellie asks. 

"I have the last thing I have to take care of, I need to steal a car from those people, Ellie you can go with us if you want to, the rest can tell what happened to Joel and the rest." Clem says, she'll deal with telling the story to Ellie later, they have to get out of there as fast as possible, Ellie agreed and went with Clem, Ellie, and Jack, no questions asked. 

"Why there was all of that shooting?" Ellie asks and Clem smiles, the smile she always gives when something goes wrong. 

"Me and Jack... Had a little accident while stealing meds, but I have whole backpack of those, so that's good, and we managed to run away without any wounds, so something new." Clementine jokes and Ellie rolls her eyes while Elliot and Jack listen, but Clem isn't exactly wrong, almost every time she fought she came back with some scratches or bruises, sometimes gunshot wounds, or stab wounds. 

Elliot was leading the group to the junkyard they were here for some time and they saw the junkyard already, but both Jack and Elliot looked around like they were looking for something. "You're looking for something?" Clem asks and Elliot nods. 

"Yeah, there was another four of us, we got separated." Jack explains and Clem looks at Ellie with a saddened look and Jack notices it. "What happened?" He asks 

"When we were on the roof of a building... And inside of a staircase were four bodies, two teens and two adults." Clem explains and hears both Elliot and Jack curse under their nose. 

"It was a family... I promised the rest that I'll find them while looking for the car." Elliot says and Clem sighs, another innocent people dead. 

They got to the junkyard and there are a van and a sedan. "Okay, I and Ellie will attack from the back, when the shooting will start you come in and start shooting too." Clem explains her plans and the three nods at it, she reminds herself of the magazine for the AK she has and hands it to Elliot. 

Ellie and Clem walked to the back of the junkyard, while Elliot and Jack waited for the right time. Ellie and Clem are hiding behind wrecked cars, Ellie nods at Clem and Clem nods at Ellie, both of them leaning out and starting to shoot at five bandits trying to warm themselves by the fire, they were surprised by the attack and by the time Elliot and Jack started to shoot three of them were already dead, another five seconds and the other two lied dead too. 

"Good work!" Elliot shouted and Clem nodded, Ellie went to search the bodies while Clementine looked for any other bandits while Jack and Elliot were going to the cars, the keys were inside of them. 

"We can go!" Ellie announced and both Clem and Ellie ran to them and got inside of the car with Elliot while Jack was driving behind them. 

The drive was short, but the walk there was a lot longer, they drove to the house about ten minutes and the walk to the junkyard took them a whole hour, the sun was rising slowly, Clem felt tired as hell, but she has to endure at least until they get to the car. 

They reached the house, Elliot's group quickly walking outside and getting inside the van and the sedan while Ellie and Clem was heading to the truck, Clem's eyes are closing, but she manages to keep them open for some time. "Drive behind us!" Clem shouts trying to sound alive, but the fatigue was catching up to her, Elliot shouted back an okay and Clem headed to the truck and when she wanted to sit in the driver's seat Ellie stopped her. "Go to sleep sleep, you need it, I'll drive." Ellie says and Clem nods at her with a grateful look and she yawns. 

Clem gets inside of the truck, at the passenger seat before Joel could sit there, Ellie was driving and the rest in the back, not even five minutes passed when Clem was already sleeping, Ellie started to drive to the school, it was still a long drive there, she turned on some quiet and light music, and focused on the road.


	31. Chapter 31

Clementine's eyes opened and she flinched at the light, after her eyes got used to the light she stretched. "You're awake." Ellie mumbled and Clementine shrugged, she doesn't know how long she was sleeping. 

"How long I was asleep?" Clem asks and Ellie thinks about for a while. 

"About five hours? Not sure, but something around that." She responds and Clem nods. 

Clem pulls out the map and asks Ellie where they are, and when Ellie answers Clem tells her that they need to go to Richmond first, and she just nods. 

"Why are we going to Richmond first?" Dina asks. 

"Because I have some more people waiting for me there, they'll help us fight Delta." Brunette responds. 

The ride was quiet, they had to make a few stops to fuel three cars, when they were riding in one car it was taking more time, because it was only two people working on it, but now it's nine people working on it, one stayed to watch the kids. Clementine throughout the whole ride was thinking about Minnie, and how to tell her about her past, Minnie wasn't a bad person, she never killed a person in her life, yet she was able to love Clementine, a person that would be considered a murderer, and thief, even if she didn't have control over some of those things. 

When they approached the gates of Richmond, they let them inside when they saw Clementine, then Clem commanded the rest to wait for her, and she was going to find either Javi or Kate. After asking some people she found them at the park, talking about something, and it wasn't about New Frontier, it was something personal. "So, I'm back." Clem says, catching the attention of both Kate and Javi. 

"Great, now there's something we have to tell you." Javi announces and Clem is all ears, she also sees that Javi is almost jumping from excitement. 

"Javi, it's not the perfect moment for it." Kate tries, but Javi won't listen. 

"What do you mean? She'll be an aunt, she should know." Javi exclaims, Clem doesn't know what she should say. 

"Since when I'm a Garcia?" Clem asks, she's confused, they could tell her after the fight, and not make her worry before it. 

"Since you helped our family, family isn't only blood, you know?" Javi states and Clem nods, well she definitely is happy that Javi considers her as family. 

"Okay... Congratulation to you two." Clem says and both Kate and Javi smile. 

"I'll celebrate after I'll be done with Delta." She says and Javi nods. 

"Kate, I'll go and help Clem with everything, wait for us at gates." Javi says, Kate nods and walks off leaving both Clem and Javi alone. 

"So, how many people did you manage to get?" Clem asks and Javi counts them. 

"If I won't count those that you recruited yourself... five, nine if we count your guys." Javi answers and Clem is surprised by the amount of help she managed to provide for the school, she expected at most ten people, not twenty-one. 

"Okay. That's good, great even, I actually start to think it might be possible to win, so who do you have?" Clem wants to be done with all of the things she has to do in Richmond before she'll start to do anything that isn't supporting the school. 

"Two soldiers, we just announced your situation and they volunteered, then me, Gabe, and Mari." He answers and Clem shakes her head, she won't take any of the Garcias. 

"Before you even start to argue, we both know I won't listen, neither Gabe or Mari, you know, that we're stubborn." Javi stops Clem, and he's right, she won't be able to stop him, but she has to keep him safe, she doesn't want his kid to be raised without a father. 

"Okay. But prepare some cars for your people, I already had to steal two cars to fit the people I have with me." Clem announces and he nods. 

"Wait for me at the gates, go for Kenny, Christa, and Omid, I'll take the rest." He offers and she nods, both of them walks off to their destinations, Clem decides to go to Kenny first, from what she remembers, he's closer than Christa and Omid. 

When she reaches his doors, she hears a couple of voices, she recognizes all of them, so she knocks on the doors. While waiting for Kenny to open the doors, her mind is back at Minnie, when she wasn't focused on something she didn't feel it, but it hits her now, she misses the redhead, very much, in just a couple of days of their relationship managed to get them so close, she told Minnie things she wouldn't tell Ellie, she knows that Minnie will listen, no matter how bad the thing she'll tell her is, so that gives her a small hope that she'll understand her past too, and if she won't... Clem prefers not to think about what will happen then. 

Doors open, and Kenny emerges from behind them. "Hey, kid. What happened to your face?" Kenny asks, of course, he noticed the cuts, Javi and Kate probably noticed too but ignored them. 

"Long story short, I had a close encounter with glass bottles. Can I come in?" Clem explains then asks and Kenny nods, stepping aside to let Clem inside and closes the door behind her. 

"So, it took you a while to get back." Kenny says leading her to his living room, his apartment isn't much different from Christa's and Omid's, but there are small differences in furniture. 

When they reached the living room, Clem saw Luke, Christa, and Omid sitting there, everyone greeted her and she had done the same. 

"What the hell happened to your face?!" Christa asks with shock as she saw the cuts and stood up to examine cuts closer, and Clem rolled her eyes and sighed. 

"I broke a couple of bottles with my face, and I had done that against my will, and believe me, those cuts are the least of my problems." Clem refused Christa's help and sat next to Kenny at the couch. 

"What do you mean, kid?" Luke asks, she just now realizes that there are more people than Minnie, Sophie, and Ellie that care about her, that thought makes her feel warm inside, also safe. 

"Bruises, gunshot wound, wound after an arrow in my thigh, then I have to take care of few things at school we're going to, then a hard talk with my girlfriend, should I continue?" Clem says and they shake their heads no, it's fine by her not to tell anything more, but she regrets that she told about her having a girlfriend. 

"A girlfriend?" Omid and Christa ask in union and Clem nods, Luke and Kenny already know about Minnie. 

"If you want to meet her, you have to wait in line, my sister already wants to meet her." 

"A sister?" All of them ask in the union now, Clem didn't notice the fact that nobody knew about her sister. 

"Chloe Price, she was adopted when I was still in QZ, I didn't saw her since she left the treehouse I was hiding in, I was too caught up in finding my parents to think about her, and by the time I met Luke I was sure she was dead like my parents." Clem clarifies and all of them nods, there's a slight pain in her chest when she mentions her parents, she doesn't even remember how they look, the only thing she has after them is the hat that is back at school, she feels weird without it. 

"Okay. But when we're moving out?" Luke asks and Clem shrugs, she only knows to wait for Javi back at the gates. 

"We're supposed to wait for Javi at the gates, I have more people with me, so you all go there, and I'll go get my guys and we'll meet you there." Clem answers Luke's question and all of them nods, they pick up their bags, probably with clothes and some essentials. 

When Clem was back, everyone waited for her, she told to follow her again, they nodded and got inside of the cars, now Clem is the one driving, Ellie didn't even argue with her. 

"So you took care of everything?" Chloe asks and Clem shakes her head, she still has to meet those two soldiers Javi told her about. 

"I have to meet two soldiers, they'll help us too, apart from them, there'll be six more people, I know and trust all of them, so don't worry about that." Clem explains and she nods. 

Throughout the short ride to the gates Clem's mind is still trying to take in all of what happened, she's becoming an aunt, she's treated like family by Javi and Kate, and she started to open up a little more around the people she trusts. 

When they reached the gates, Christa, Omid, Kenny, and Luke were already waiting for them, but Javi and the rest are nowhere to be seen. "How long will we have to wait?" Joel asks he wasn't impatient, but he probably wants to have this whole thing behind him already, and they still don't know how long they'll have to be at school to wait for Delta to attack. 

While waiting for Javi, Clem thought a little about latest things that happened to her, and she just now realized that her life is more complicated than ever, she's basically thrown into war because she loves a girl and the group said girl is in was attacked by the community that Clem is fighting, and after the war, she'll have other responsibilities as an aunt, but she'll make sure to be a great aunt, she'll do everything she can to be a great aunt. 

"You okay? You seem lost." Ellie asks, of course, she's worried, she always was, but Clem always tried to push her out, she won't anymore, she can't, not after what Ellie had done for her. 

"Because I'm lost. I risk lives of people I most care about if they'll die it'll be my fault because I had fallen in love." Clem admits, she shouldn't accept any help, she was the one to agree to help, and now she's the reason that people she loves might die. 

"You're not the only one that does stupid things because of love kid. I saw more than one example of that, even before the world collapsed." Joel says, maybe he isn't as cold as Clem thought he is. 

"I wouldn't let you go alone, Dina, Joel, they wouldn't let me go alone, those people in front of us? Wouldn't let you alone too, those behind us? They owe you for saving them, so stop worrying so much, we'll win, you always have good plans, at least better than mine." Ellie reassures, and Clem feels a little better knowing that someone believes in her. 

"And me?" Chloe asks, she's the only one that Ellie didn't mention, and Ellie shrugs at that. 

"I can think of many things why'd you want to go with Clem, to be honest." Dina teases and Chloe opens her mouth to say something but closes it when she doesn't know what to say, it's true, there's more than one reason she's going with Clem, and the best thing is that Chloe herself doesn't know either. 

"But just so you know, Clem we're here to help you with this, you don't need to take it all on yourself." Ellie reassures, and everyone agrees, even Joel, even if reluctantly. 

"Yeah... I know, it's just hard to make other people take care of problems that aren't theirs." Clem admits, she wants to cry, she didn't in such a long time, she bottled up her feelings to this point, but she also knows that it's not time to break, so she'll keep on bottling those feelings, just for a while longer. 

"It's them, I recognize that boy in the beanie." Ellie informs, and that's true, Javi, Mari, Gabe each one of them have bags on their backs and Kate is following them. 

"Well, that's my cue, wait for me." Clem announces and gets out of the car and approaches Javi. 

"So all the cars behind the one you were in are people you managed to get?" Javi asks and Clem nods with a weak smile. 

"Okay, great, we can go, I'll go to get cars, Gabe help me, Clem meet, Wyatt, and Kyle, Kyle, Wyatt, meet Clementine." Javi introduces and walks off, the three and they exchange pleasantries while Kate is talking with Gabe. 

"You look young, kid." Wyatt says, Clem frowns a little, well he has a right to say something like that, many people underestimate her, and that's the reason some people died. 

"She maybe is young, but she took down around ten Delta soldiers by herself, with a gunshot in her abdomen, so yeah, she might not look like it, but she's one of the best, if not the best fighter in the whole world." Mariana defends her friend, and Clem thanks her with a smile, and Wyatt raises his hands in surrender and he chuckles a little. 

"Okay kid, you got my respect." 

"Mine's too." Kyle, he's the quiet one, but they seem like they're good friends though. 

"So, why did you volunteered to help me? I appreciate the help of course, but you have no reason to help me." Clem asks. 

"Let's say that we didn't like Delta from the start, and when we have a chance to help someone with them we do it, no questions asked." Wyatt answers and Clem hears this little part of his voice that lets her know that he despises Delta with his whole being, Kyle nods at his statement. 

"Oh, and I was teasing you with saying you look young, I see that cuts on your face and I'm pretty sure it wasn't an accident that you have them." Wyatt admits and Clem cracks a smile, he's funny, but it might me Clem's weak humor. 

"Good to know." She responds. 

Then Kyle and Wyatt are debating something and Mari closes herself a little to Clem. "They kinda scare me." She admits and Clem chuckles a little. 

"They're not that bad, sure they're a little, intimidating because of their look, but they're sympathetic." Clem retorts, both Kyle and Wyatt are tall and well-built man, if Clem is sure of one thing is that she wouldn't be able to take them down easily, not in hand to hand combat, well maybe if Clem would be in perfect state, but her state is far from perfect, or good even. 

"Yeah, whatever you say. Did you hear that Kate is pregnant?" Mari asks with little excitement in her voice, she's happy to have another sibling. 

"Yeah, apparently I'll be an aunt, both Javi and Kate are treating me as Garcia, so I agreed, and I'll do my damn best to be a good one." Clem says with determination and Mari smiles widely. 

"You'll be don't worry. And I treat you as Garcia too, Gabe probably too, even if you lost in his eyes because of Minnie, but she seems friendly, and kind, I'm happy for you." Mari says and Clem now smiles too. 

"Thanks, really. It means a lot to me." She replies and Mari waves it off. 

"I'm back, I'll give you all gear after we reach our destination. Get inside" Javi announces as he's in one of two cars, pick-ups and he gestures Clem to get closer as Kyle and Wyatt were getting inside one of the cars. 

"You have guns for your guys or should I bring more?" Javi asks and Clem nods, he smiles and nods too, then Kate gets closer and pecks Javi on the lips. 

"Be safe." She says and he nods. 

"Of course I'll be, don't worry." Javi promises and Kate rolls her eyes. 

"I'll keep him alive, as he said, don't worry." Clem promises too and Kate nods and walks off. 

Kenny, Luke, Christa, and Omid joined Javi as Clem got back to her car, she's leading a small convoy, and she only hopes that they'll get to school without any troubles.


	32. Chapter 32

The hours went by without any trouble, no one had to stop for fuel, all of the tanks were almost full, and Clem had just now realized how much her body is sore, from all of the beating she took in just one week, but she's worried that her ribs might be fractured or broken, and that wouldn't be good, and she knows and trusts only one person to check it. 

"Dina?" 

"Yeah?" She answers, she was almost asleep, it's night and in their car, only Clem and Dina aren't sleeping. 

"When we get back to school, can you check if my ribs are alright? I took quite a beating while helping Joel's patrol, and it's all bruised, but I'm not sure if they're fractured or broken." Clem asks. 

"Sure, but when we'll get back? I'm not sure where we exactly are." Dina agrees and Clem thinks about her question, it shouldn't take more than half an hour. 

"About half an hour, try and get some sleep until we get there, you need it." Clem answers Dina yawns and nods to her statement. 

"You need it too, you know?" Dina asks, her eyes closed, she's right, Clem needs sleep, she's the one that gets the least sleep, the other stopped to change the driver, so the previous one can sleep, and she didn't change, not once, but she'll get some sleep when they'll get to school, but to be honest, she just wants to sleep next to Minerva, and she smiles at that thought. 

"I know, I promise to get some when we'll get back." Clem promises, Dina nods and she seems to finally drift off to sleep. 

The light tones coming out of the speakers in the car made Clem more and more sleepy, and four people sleeping around her didn't really help, but it's not that bad as the one accident when she had fallen asleep while driving, even if it was just for a couple of seconds. Not long after her stomach started growling the last time she ate something was two days ago and she wishes she could stop just to eat, but she can't, she'll eat when they'll get back. 

Twenty minutes after all of them can already see walls, and gates of the school, Clem smiles. Someone has to get up since, Clem has to open the gates, so Clem grabs Ellie by the shoulder and shakes her until she wakes up. 

"What is it?" Ellie asks, her voice is sleepy, but she's wide awake. 

"We're here, I'm going to open the gates, drive inside when I will open them, okay?" Clem asks, Ellie nods and both of them walk outside the car, Clem heading to the gates, Ellie changing seats. 

Clem notices that whoever was at the watchtower was going down from there, not long after, Louis was helping her open the gates. 

"So you're back." Louis says, his voice quiet. 

"Yeah, step aside, they have to ride inside here." Clem answers and Louis nods, both of them walking aside to let cars ride inside of the courtyard. 

"Go to Sophie, let her know we're here, she'll need to assign rooms for everyone." Clem asks and Louis nods, he takes a step forward but turns back to Clem. 

"Minnie too?" He asks and she nods with a weak smile, and he walks off to dorms. 

Cars slowly park at the wall, people coming out of the vehicles, kids are carried by the adults of Elliot's group, Clem slowly stumbles to them, she feels really tired. 

"So we're here?" Elliot asks, and Clem nods. 

"Good place to defend, solid and tall walls if we could get any razor wire, they couldn't climb them... I'm thinking too forward, we should do it when you're rested, I can see that you're about to fall asleep in a matter of seconds." Elliot says, and Clem yawns. 

"Do you think they'll have a place for us to sleep?" Jack asks, he has Alice on his hands, and Clem shrugs, she isn't really sure. 

"Maybe, if they won't I'll let sleep kids in my room, I'll manage." Clem says, even if no one believes her. 

"So how did you end up here?" Omid asks while he and Christa approach Clem. 

"Me, and Ellie were looking for Ellie's girlfriend, we found this place under attack from Delta, we helped them, and their friends from Delta's outpost and we found Ellie's girlfriend there too." 

"Okay. Even if I don't know this Ellie." Christa answers, and then Clem reminds herself that people might not be too friendly towards her. 

"All of you, listen to me, they might not treat me good, I killed their leader, but it was his fault, he attacked me even if I defeated him, self-defense." Clem announces, she can feel surprised looks on her, but she ignores them. 

"Wow. You kill their leader after he attacked you, and you still help them?" Wyatt asks and Clem nods, it wasn't his fault, it's all Delta's fault. 

"Well, he wanted to sell my girlfriend and her sister to Delta before I ended up here, he then said Delta that he won't give anyone to them, and everything maybe would be fine if he wouldn't threaten them, he was stupid as hell." Clem explains and Wyatt nods. 

When Ellie approached them with Dina and Joel, she was curious where Chloe is. "Where's Chloe?" 

"Well, I tried to wake her up normally, but Ellie got annoyed when she wouldn't, so she just opened the door of the truck and threw her out, she's still probably picking herself up from the ground." Dina explains and Clem shakes her head in amusement. 

"Not mine fault." Ellie defends and Clem chuckles, she's right, it's Chloe's fault she should just wake up, she should know that neither Clem or Ellie will be gentle with waking her. 

"Of course not, she'll teach herself to wake up when we tell her to or to just wake early." Clem says and Ellie nods. 

"What are we waiting for?" Kyle asks. 

"For their leader to come down, I sent the man, or boy should I say, to wake her up." Clem answers and he nods. 

Not long after, Louis, Sophie were down, Minnie weren't there and Louis said she'll come in a few minutes. "You brought that many people... I expected at most ten, not over twenty." The leader says and Clem nods. 

"Yeah, I expected the same." Clem joke a little, but Sophie shakes her head at that. 

"The thing is that we only have a place for ten people, not more." Sophie explains and Clem nods a little, but something isn't right, the dorms have three floors, so there should be much more room. 

"It's infested with runners and clickers, we locked that part out, so we're safe, but if we want to have a place for them then we have to clear some of it out, and we didn't have the need to clear it out earlier." Sophie explains when she sees that Clem is looking at the dorms building. 

"Okay. Then we go clear it out, I'll need at least four people, who wants to go?" Clem asks, she's tired, but she has to help, it's her responsibility. 

"Me, and Joel will go." Ellie volunteers and after her Kyle and Wyatt volunteer too, they see that Clem is tired, but don't say anything. 

"Okay, Sophie lead us there, Ellie, Joel, we need to get guns first." Clem commands, she sees that both Wyatt and Kyle have guns. 

"Louis warn the rest about the possible shooting, maybe we'll be able to do it unnoticed, but I'm not sure about it." Clem says and Louis nods, running off to the dorms building. 

"Clem, you're sure that you can do this? You look tired." Christa asks, she's worried, but Clem nods with a smile, she can do it, she managed in worse conditions. 

"Yeah, I'm sure." Clem assures and Christa nods, even if she doesn't believe her. 

Joel picked a Glock 19, Ellie chose Scorpion EVO3, and Clem chose a Remington 870. All of them heading behind Sophie to the dorms building, and right before they reached the doors Minnie walked out, and she ran to the Clem and tackled her to the ground by accident with a hug which Clem reciprocates. 

"I missed you." Minnie whispers and Clem feels the pain from her bruises, but she doesn't say anything. 

"I missed you too, but if you could stand up, I have to take care of something, but after that, I'm all yours." Clem promises and feels Minnie nodding after that Minnie helps get Clem up. 

"There are more people in the courtyard, go meet them, and ignore any shooting." Clem informs and Minnie nods confusedly. 

"They're going to clear out some of the dorms, Clem brought over twenty people here." Sophie explains and Minnie nods. 

"Be careful." Minnie asks and Clem smiles. 

"I always am." Clem says and Ellie snorts. 

"Your face shows how much you're careful." Ellie jokes. 

"What do you mean?" Minnie asks, it's too dark to see Clem's cuts, Joel sighs, while Wyatt and Kyle listen. 

"I'll explain later, we need to go or I'll fall asleep. Bye." Clem hurries and Minnie nods and walks off to the rest of the group. 

The walk was short, Wyatt and Kyle moved the handmade barricade aside to let the small group get inside, Sophie stayed out, and when they were inside Kyle and Wyatt closed the barricade again they don't want to any infected to run out. 

"Okay, stick as a group, cover each other's backs, we don't want any of them to sneak up on us." Clem commands, everyone nods, adrenaline makes all of the tiredness go away, screams, whines, and clicks of infected already hearable, they just has to clear a small area, at some point are more barricades, they had to make one more because of one person was bit and didn't tell anyone about that and in the night it attacked others, so Marlon and Mitch made another barricade, it was two years ago, so clickers are further in the building, so maybe Kyle and Wyatt will be able to move barricades a little bit forward, so they'll be able to get rid of them too. 

The group slowly start to sneak through the corridor, pressing their ears to the doors of the rooms to check if any infected is inside and if they didn't hear anything they opened the room to check to be sure, and if they heard something someone opened the door while the other person quickly sneaked to the runner to stab it to death, then they were going to check another room and repeated the action, they checked ten rooms this way and killed about ten runners, they were at the point where the barricades are. Wyatt and Kyle started to open it and when they did, a runner charged at them, pinning Wyatt to the wall, Clem quickly pulled him to the ground by his clothes and stomped on its head with enough force to kill it. 

"Thanks kid." Wyatt pants out and Clem nods at his words. 

"You alright?" Clem asks and he nods, Kyle going first to check if there are any more infected and when he gestures that there are none, all of them slowly make their way up the stairs, now the sounds of infected are louder. 

"There are a lot more of them, is it worth to risk?" Joel asks, he's right, now the infected are on the corridor too, not only runners but clickers too. 

"In my opinion we should clear the whole building, at least this floor, we can't risk any of them get past the barricade." Kyle suggests, it's a good idea, yet they're risking their lives, so Clem thinks about it since everyone probably wants her opinion on it. 

"We try, if they'll spot us and we won't be able to fight them off we retreat and cover Kyle and Wyatt while they'll move the barricade." Clem offers, it's a safe idea, low chances of anyone getting hurt or killed, everyone agrees with so slowly they make their way, making sure that no runner will spot them, and when they have a chance to kill a runner or clicker they do it, when there was only three infected on the corridor they coordinated and Joel, Wyatt, and Kyle killed them at the same time, now only they have to check the rooms and they're able to barricade this floor off if there are any more infected on the third floor. There was almost none of the infected, four of them to be exact, but all of them were clickers, and even a single clicker can be a threat. 

"Okay, that's it." Clem announces when Kyle and Wyatt are done with barricade, they have only to take care of the bodies, but Clem has next to zero energy, so she might fall asleep at any moment, they were taking care of the infected for an hour. 

"Go and sleep, you need it, I'll take Elliot and Jack and we'll take care of the bodies, and besides that girl of yours might be worried." Wyatt jokes, Clem nods and rolls her eyes, but agrees with him and walks down the stairs and to the courtyard, only Minnie and Sophie from the group in the school are there, and the rest of the people Clem brought over. 

"We were starting to get worried." Kenny says and Clem yawns. 

"Yeah, we cleared out the first and second floor, the third one is still to be cleaned, so we have no troubles to fit anymore, but you still have to wait for a little longer, there are a lot of bodies." Clem informs. 

"Go to sleep, we'll go help the guys upstairs." Javi says and almost whole group walks to the building, only the one that has kids with them, Minnie, and Sophie stayed. 

"Clem, we really appreciate what you're doing for us, you saved us from bandits and provided us a safe place, no one else will say it, probably because they're kind of scared of you, but you have a good heart." Jade says and Clem smiles. 

"Don't mention it... Okay, I'd stay longer, but I'm tired as hell, I'll go to sleep. Bye." Clem says and all of them nods, but Minnie goes with her, both of them heading to the truck, Clem picks up her backpack and when she wants to take the bag with ammo and her clothes, Minnie stops her and picks it up herself, but she was surprised by the weight of the bag. 

"I'll take it, but what the hell is inside?" Minnie asks. 

"My clothes and ammo, I'll sort it out tomorrow." Clem answers. "Thank you by the way." 

"Don't mention it, but I have a question, can you change? I don't want to tell you're smelly, but you are, and you have blood all over yourself." Minnie jokes and Clem rolls her eyes. 

"That's why I wanted to take that bag, and I took the backpack out from the force of habit." Clem tells and Minnie nods. 

"I talked a little with Jade and Kate, they told me that you saved them from some bandits, alone, Jade is right, you have a good heart, one of many reasons why I love you." Minnie says and Clem blushes, she doesn't know why, but it has much more meaning now, then the first time she said it, maybe because she opened up, she isn't sure herself. 

"I love you too." Clem mutters, but she means it and Minnie knows it too. 

When they reached Minnie's room, Minnie informed that Sophie is sleeping at Brody's that night, Clem took off the backpack and Minnie placed the bag next to it and Clem took out clothes that Minnie gave her. 

"Uhh... Can you turn around? Or leave the room?" Clem asked embarrassed and Minnie nods and left the room, and Clem quickly changes the clothes and puts the one that she took it off in the bag. 

Clem called that Minnie can go in, she did and closed doors behind her. The candle was lit on the desk between two bunk beds and just now Minnie noticed the cuts on Clem's face and gasped a little. "What happened to you?" Minnie asks and Clem shrugs. 

"I was helping Joel, the older man that was with me to clear the dorms, his patrol was attacked by some scums, I sneaked my way around and one woman saw me, punched me many times on stomach and ribs, then pushed me to the shelf full of bottles. I'm afraid that I might have broken or fractured ribs." Clem explains. 

"Oh my god, I'm sorry I tackled you before, I shouldn't, I'm really, really, sorry." Minnie apologizes and Clem shakes her head. 

"Don't apologize, I didn't stop you and you didn't know, but it was worth it." Clem stops Minnie from further apologizes, she weakly nods. 

"I'm going to sleep, you?" Clem asks and Minnie smiles and lays down before Clem can, and scoots so Clem has space to lay down. Clem lays next to Minnie, she wraps her hands around the taller girl and nuzzles her head into her neck. 

"I don't understand why you love me." Clem mutters, she didn't want Minnie to hear it, but she did. 

"Many things, you help the ones that need it, you're the only one that would be brave enough to help us when Tenn and the rest got kidnapped by Delta and didn't want anything out of it, and... I love everything about you, you're perfect." 

"I'm not perfect, I'm far from it." Clem refuses Minnie's words and hears Minnie sigh. 

"In my eyes you're perfect, and you can tell whatever you want and you won't be able to change that." 

"You don't know what I did, I did horrible things, I should die a long time ago for what I did." Clem says, her voice breaking a little, she really thinks that way. 

"Don't talk things like that, I didn't fall in love in you for things you did, but for who you are, you're kind-hearted person, you put everyone first, you don't let anyone know about your problems because you don't want to anyone be bothered by your problems, but you're not alone, everyone has their problems and you always help if anyone has any, but you don't want to other people to help you, you can't stop other people from helping you, Elliot's group wants to help you because you helped them, Ellie the same, Joel probably too, Dina too, everyone that followed you, they want to help you, so let them, you don't have to do everything alone." Minnie stops Clem sobs, she bottled to much of the feeling inside for too long, Minnie is right, Ellie always was worried, but Clem would push her out, she didn't want anyone to help her, but Minnie is right, all of the people that followed her worry and care about her, and she should let them help. 

"You're right. I'm not invincible, I can't do anything alone. I pushed people that wanted to help me and I regretted it later, I bottled everything for years by now, I'm a fucking wreck." Clem cries out. 

"You're not, but know, I'll always be there to help you." 

"I love you." Clem cries out again, her sobbing is getting worse. 

"I love you more. Let it all out, I'm here for you." Minnie reassures and lets Clem cry on her shoulder. She means everything she said, and she'll keep her promise, no matter how long will it take for Clem to recover from her old and forgotten wounds of past.


	33. Chapter 33

Clem woke up to someone touching her face, when she opened her eyes she saw Minnie caressing her cheek with a smile, the sun illuminating the room. 

"Good morning beautiful." Minnie says with a smile making Clem blush with complement 

"How long have you been awake?" Clem asks, not pushing Minnie's hand off, she likes her touch it's warm and soothing. 

"Don't know, twenty minutes? Something around that." She answers and Clem moves in closer to her, lying on her chest, trying to hide her blush that won't disappear. 

"You know when I first saw you I didn't think of you as a soft type of person." Minnie says, now her hand in Clem's hair. 

"To be honest I didn't even know that I can be like that." Clem responds, they will have to get up soon, at least Clem will have to, she has responsibilities, much of them, but she will use the time she has left as much as she possibly can. 

"Dina was here last night, talking about your ribs, you asked her to check them, but you were already asleep when she arrived." Minnie tells her, and Clem sighs, she knew about that and she forgot, another thing she has to do. 

"Well, my list of things I have to take care of today is getting bigger by every second." Clem complains and getting a giggle from Minnie as a result. 

"Just from curiosity, what do you have to do?" Minnie asks and Clem takes a deep breath in. 

"Well teach everyone that can't how to use a gun properly, hand to hand combat, make some plans for the battle, I have some idea but I'll need plans of the whole school for this, start to make some supplies for winter, I brought food but it's far too less for forty people, and check my ribs and whatever will come up." She explains and Minnie nods a little, it's a lot, especially convincing Mitch to let Clem stay, he was bragging about throwing her out as soon as she comes back and to convince whoever she brings as support to stay and help them, but looking who is here to help them probably no one would stay. 

"You should eat something, you have a long day ahead, Sophie will manage to send teams to hunt and fish, but what will people that you brought do?" 

"I wanted to eat as soon as I come back, but clearing the dorms took too long, I think that I'll teach some of them hand to hand combat I think that Kate and Jade don't really know how to fight well, and kids maybe will hang out together, I don't know." Clem replies. 

Clem lays with Minnie for another ten minutes or so, she has to get up soon, she has to sort out ammo and clothes, eat something and possibly ask Dina to check her ribs before starting to work with others, she has some free time and then she spots that Minnie brought all of her things to hers and Sophie's room, and guitar is there too. "Okay, I'll get up, I'll sort my clothes and ammo, then play something on guitar, thanks for carrying my things her by the way." 

"Don't mention it, I didn't want anyone mess with your things, and knowing Mitch, he'd throw it out when given a chance." Minnie replies, Clem stands up and takes her clothes out, folding them and placing them on the ground next to the bag. 

"You can put your clothes to the wardrobe unless you want a separate room, then you can put them there." Minnie offers and Clem shakes her head at the separate room, if she should be honest, if she would have a separate room she would still go to Minnie's and Sophie's just to be with a tall redhead. 

When Clem was done with the clothes she picked up her guitar, sat at Sophie's bunk, tuned it and started playing, Minerva listening, humming to the melody of the song that Clem doesn't even think about, she just started to play whatever came in her mind. This went on for about five minutes until Clem's stomach growled, it just now hit her how hungry she is. 

"Let's go eat something, I can hear your stomach from here." Minnie offers and Clem agrees, putting guitar aside, Clem changed first, Minnie waited for her outside of the room, she was changed in the same clothes she had last night, but she put on some cargo pants. Brunette grabbed redhead's hand, she thought that Minnie will tell her to stop, but she squeezed her hand with hers, a smile on her face. 

They reached the courtyard, some people are awake, Dina, Ellie, Violet, Brody, and Mitch, the rest is probably still sleeping. "So, when do you think he'll start talking something stupid?" Clem asks as they get closer to Dina and Ellie, they're sitting at the table, the bag with food is on it. 

"I give him ten minutes at max, unless he got smarter, but I doubt it." Minnie answers, they arrived at the table and greeted both Ellie and Dina. 

Clem grabbed canned tuna and started eating it, not caring it didn't taste good. "At least you eat something." Ellie remarks, Clem rolls her eyes at her comment. 

"I didn't eat for three days straight, and you know that my limit was five days, so I still could survive without eating." Clem says with her mouth full of food. 

"Drink this, Chloe found so much of this that it's incredible." Dina says seeing that Clem is still tired and puts a can of Monster on the table, Clem nodded and started to drink it, she did found a couple of them n the past, she loved the taste of it. 

"Thanks, it'll be useful, maybe I won't feel tuna's taste in my mouth." Clem complains and tries to wash off the taste of tuna in her mouth and when she's done she spits out drink, so she won't drink Monster mixed with tuna, tuna's taste isn't killed, but it's not as bad as it was just a minute ago. 

"You still want me to check those ribs?" Dina asks and Clementine nods, she still needs to know if she should take it easy just a little bit or if she can work as hard as usual. 

"Yeah just wait," Clem says ending her drink and putting empty can on the table. "we can go." 

Both Dina and Clem had gone to Ellie's room, now Clem is laying without her blouse and a tank top, a bra is still on and Dina is checking her ribs, Clem wincing from time to time. 

"Your ribs are fine, but still take it easy, and eat more, you're skinny as hell. And cool tattoo by the way." Dina informs, Clem nods at the information and start dressing. 

"I'll try, but that food won't last long with all of those people, we need to get more food or it'll run out by the first week, I'll talk to Sophie about this." Clem states, zipping her blouse. 

"Well, we'll need to care for supplies and to stop people from killing each other before Delta will have chance, they'll prepare for it, probably for over a month, they do it to get people and equipment with them and to decrease morale of the group they want to attack, and I saw how... Gabe, I think? Looked at Minerva, it's a matter of time before they'll fight, you know what he wants from Minnie?" Dina asks Clem nods, she knows it's about Minnie being Clem's girlfriend. 

"Yeah, well, he thinks that I shouldn't be with Minnie, because I don't know her." Clem explains and Dina scoffs, probably at what Gabe said. 

"Fucking idiot, she's good for you, you're smiling, eating, and seem genuinely happy, and not that depressed as the day I met you." Dina says, Clem smiles at her words, she's right in all things she just said. 

"I know, I tried explaining it to him, but he had a crush on me for some time when I helped Javi, maybe he's not over it and he's just jealous about her." Clem thinks out loud and Dina nods in agreement. 

"Could be, and normally I'd tease you about it, but looking at how big of an asshole he is, I'll just say that I'm sorry that you have to deal with him." Dina says. 

"Don't. Ellie was teasing me about him, and it was an only moment in which I wanted to kill her, but she just wanted me to be happy so I forgave her." 

"We can go then?" Clem asks, Dina nods, both of them walk out of the room, back to the courtyard which is more crowded than before, they only can't see kids from Elliot's group, the rest is there. 

Then there was some shouting and grunts. "Oh boy. About them killing each other." Dina sighs, Clem runs to the source of fighting. 

When Clem reaches the source, she sees Jack beating the shit out of Mitch, he had to say something he shouldn't, Clem rushes to Jack and pulls him off Mitch while he struggles against her grip, but Clem manages to stop him. "STOP!" Clem shouts, trying to calm down the argument, Mitch gets up and takes the opportunity that Jack is held back by Clem and hits him a couple of times before either Jack or Clem and react sending Jack to the ground, Clem griths her teeth. 

"Fucking stop!" Clem shouts again in between all of the shouting, but she wants to tell that to Mitch. 

"Or what?" Mitch asks in a daring tone. 

"You don't want to know." 

"Try me." He dares again and Clem can't stop herself, he pushed her too far, she punches him right in the face, sending him to the ground, shouting around her, she knows that no one will hear her, so she pulls out her FNX-45 and shoots in the air, shouting stops, and some screams in fear hearable, when everyone is quiet Clem holsters the pistol, grabs Mitch by his shirt to get him up from the ground, she hit him hard. 

"They want to help your fucking friends and you just fight with them? You're fucking retarded or just stupid?" Clem asks, her voice filled with anger, he spits in her face with blood, she wipes it off and punches him in the guts. 

"I risk my fucking life to help you all, I risk lives of people I love just so you can fuck it all up? Do something like that once fucking more and I promise to you that I'll personally will give you to Delta, since you think that when Marlon wanted to do that to Minnie and Sophie was fine then you won't mind if I do that to you, and I mean it, don't hit anyone unless I'll tell you to, understood?" She asks, he just grunts, not saying anything, but Clem doesn't care if he's agreeing to it, she meant all of it, then she crouched down by Jack, he's still laying in the ground. 

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't hold you back for so long, but what the hell happened?" Clem asks Jack, he takes deep breathes, probably trying to contain the pain. 

"I'll tell you later. Don't be sorry, I'd kill him if you wouldn't stop me, I'll just catch my breath." He replies and Clem nods, standing up. 

"Everyone go back to your business." Clem commands, every one walks off, still talking about what happened, Dina, Ellie, and Minnie standing next to her, Sophie approached them later. 

"Well, it'll be a miracle if someone won't die before Delta will even attack." Ellie states, she's right, but they can't keep an eye on everything. 

"Clem was it... necessary to hit him again?" Sophie asks and Clem nods, he wouldn't react if she wouldn't hit him. 

"Kind of, but for fuck's sake, keep him in line, please, because Jack is calm and if Kenny would get to him, he might die before I'll be able to save him." Clem asks and she nods, even if Sophie isn't sure if she'll be able to keep him in line. 

"Do any of you know what the hell happened?" Clem asks while rubbing her temples, she didn't expect that this morning will take this turn. 

"We were sitting together, Jack was going next to Mitch, they talked for a while and then Jack charged at him, and knowing Mitch, it's his fault." Minnie explains, it's better than nothing, but Jack will know the rest. 

When Ellie, Dina, and Sophie walked away Clem sighed deeply, she doesn't know when she experienced that amount of stress at one time. "You okay?" Minnie asks worried and Clem shakes her head. 

"If I won't die to Delta, the stress will kill me, how am I supposed to keep around forty people from killing each other for over a month when they almost killed each other the first day? I'll fucking fail, everyone will die and it'll be on me." Clem rumbles and Minnie embraces her. 

"You won't, you always find a way, for fuck's sake you attacked Delta's outpost without planning, you can keep them from killing each other, me and Sophie will try to keep everyone in our group in line, you try to do the same to rest, someone will help you but pick someone that sees it the same way you do." Minnie tries to cheer her up and feels Clem nodding against her chest. 

"Okay, I'll try to find out what happened, you try to... Find out how much more people from your group hate me now, and if I'll have to expect Mitch trying to take revenge." Clem says, Minnie nods, walks off to her group while Clem stumbles to the other part of the courtyard in which everyone she brought are, Dina checks on Jack while Elliot seems furious about something probably about what happened. 

When she arrived, she had gone to Jack immediately. "So?" Clem asks waiting for his response. 

"Well, I was walking down the courtyard, I heard him talking shit about you, I told him he should be grateful for what you're doing for them, he scoffed, I told him that you're kind, etc, I told him that you saved us, and he told that you shouldn't and that we'll all die in one week, and that we're probably even worse than Delta, you told us what they do, we don't do anything like that, he pushed me too far, then it was just a while and we were fighting and everyone was arguing, I'm sorry, I shouldn't attack back just try and dodge the attacks? Anything that wouldn't cause you troubles." He explains and Clem sighs, of course, Mitch can't keep his thoughts to himself. 

"Don't be. You did fine, and besides I hit him too, I'm guilty too, but... It'll be hard to convince them to work with us." Clem states and he agrees, Clem walks off to Elliot, he seemed angry about something and she wants to know about what. 

"You told us they won't treat us well last night, but I didn't expect that." Elliot says and Clem nods, she didn't expect that either. 

"I'll manage to keep it as neutral as I can, but he hates me, he did that just to annoy me, I don't know how he survived that long with that attitude." 

"I know that you will, I'm not scared for Jack, he's tough, but Kate, Jade, and the kids who I'm worried about, no one cares if you're a woman or a man these days, he can attack Jade and Kate or tell something to kids, and I promise you that if he will, I'll fucking kill him with no remorse." He states, and he would have every right to do so. 

"I'll teach Jade and Kate how to fight, I'll always have someone to watch over kids, don't worry, I'll kill him myself if he even touches them." She reassures and he responds with a small smile and walks off to kids, they ran out of the dorms building when they heard the shooting. 

"Great work kid." Joel says with sarcasm in his voice, Clem groans and rolls her eyes, she heard enough. 

"I mean it actually, you managed to stop something like a riot with only two people getting hurt, something that didn't happen before the world collapsed when something like that happened sometimes someone ended dead, so it's not as bad as it seems." Joel explains and Clem nods, she heard about it from her parents, even if they were kids when the outbreak happened riots after it was huge. 

Sometime later Minnie came back and told Clem that everyone doesn't support Mitch in this case, he shouldn't do it and everyone knew about it. 

"At least it's as shitty as I thought it would be." Clem sighs out and Minnie nods, agreeing to what her girlfriend said, she thought the same. 

"Well yeah, but it's just morning, we have a whole day to survive." Minnie sighs too. 

"Let's hope it will be better than the morning, or I might not handle it." 

"You will, I'll help you." Minnie reassures, Clem smiles and starts believing it might actually happen.


	34. Chapter 34

The day was slowly coming to end, Clem trained most of the people in some basics of hand to hand combat and using a gun, and only a few people are getting a hang of it, but they have time, at least for now. Sun was slowly hiding behind horizon, Clem used a while of peace to look at it, a smile on her face, a sleeve rolled up a little and Clem didn't notice that maybe it rolled up during training. It was peaceful even considering that Delta might attack at any moment. 

"So this day was quite eventful." Luke says as he sits next to Clem, and she not caring to even look at him nods. 

"Is that a tattoo?" He asks, and Clem again nods. Honestly, she's tired, it's harder than she could even imagine, at least no one tried to kill someone else after the incident between Mitch and Jack. 

"Why you got one?" He asks again, but he's not mad, Luke just wants to know. 

Luke knows about her cuts, so he can know, but Clem looks around so no one who doesn't know about them won't hear her. "I wanted to hide my cuts, and it's working, Chloe looked at it from close, like, really, close, she grabbed my wrist and looked at it for a moment and she didn't notice them." 

"Good idea. But aren't you a little harsh with your training? I mean, you teach them how it'd look outside the walls, that no one will show them mercy, but maybe we should train them how to actually fight before this?" 

"Yeah, I know, I got a little carried away, but I never was teaching anyone and especially no how to fight. But you're right." Clem agrees, she didn't kick them while they were on the ground obviously, but she didn't tell them what they're doing wrong either, her mistake, but she can fix it. 

Luke nodded and walked away, Clem pried her eyes of looking at the sunset, turned around and saw that people were chatting, nothing happening, but hunting and fishing crew didn't return yet, Clem was worried even more than usual since Minnie was with them, they're late only about half an hour, but even that makes Clem worried and looking at the sunset helped her forget about that, but now when she's looking at the rest and she doesn't see everyone, she's worried. 

"Clem!" Sophie shouted as she runned to Clem. 

"What is it?" Clem asks as Sophie pants and tries to catch her breath. 

"Hunting crew can't get inside, infected are around the school and it's impossible to get through them, they ask for our help." 

"Okay, we're going, go get... Kenny and Javi, we should be enough, we'll meet at the gates, don't forget weapons." Clem commands, and she rushes to the gates. She looks and sees Violet crouching behind a rock, the rest probably behind her, when blonde spots Clem she points at around ten infected, two clickers, and eight runners. 

When a runner spots Clem in the gates it charges at her, alerting the rest of the infected. "Fuck." She mutters, infected try to push the gate open, but it has to be opened from inside if someone's outside, it was a stupid precaution, but that at least made Clem not worry about infected getting inside, everyone in the courtyard already is alerted by screeches of the gate. 

There's another exit from the school, Clem saw it on the plans, and she wants to use it to get out since gate isn't usable at the moment. When Clem turned around to walk away from the gate, the screeches got louder and louder, and then the gate just broke, and infected runs inside. "Oh shit! Get the kids inside!" Clem screams as she runs away from the infected, Jade and Kate runs with kids to the dorms. 

Clementine turned her head around and one clicker was catching up on her, she had no chances to run away, so she turns around and hits it, but still being careful so it won't bite her and clicker didn't even budge at her punch and lunges at Clem, pinning her to ground, there was some shouting around her, but clicking right in front of her face makes her ignore the shouts. 

Clem tries her best to stop clicker from biting her, but it's getting closer and closer to her neck, trying to bite it, right before it could bite her a cleaver splits its head in two stopping right in front of her face. Clem rolls of the body of her and sees that Violet killed the clicker. Minnie ran from behind Violet and crouched beside Clem. "You're alright?" Minnie asks with fear in her voice, looking for any bites and right when she was about to nod two runners started to charge at the three. Clem pulled out her pistol and shot all of them in the head, one of them was right in front of Violet. 

"That was way too close." Clem pants and Minnie nods, and then more shots from behind them started to ring through the courtyard, meaning that the rest started to take care of the rest of the infected. 

Minnie helped Clem get up and when she did, Clem looked at the courtyard to check if the infected are taken care of and when she sees that they are she asks. "Is everyone okay?" When everybody nods or shows her thumbs up she sighs in relief. 

"You were the last person I expected to help me, right before Mitch. But still thank you." Clem admits and Violet shrugs. 

"I wasn't sure if I want to help you, but looking that you're the only one that can hold this shit together I decided to help." Violet answers and walks off to the rest. 

"This fucking gate will be the end of us, we have to repair and reinforce it as soon as possible... You're alright?" Clem asks and Minnie nods. 

Minnie and Clem close to the rest and right before Clem could tell anything she was pushed to the ground by Mitch. "It's all your fucking fault!" He shouts but right before he can do anything more Ellie already aims at him. 

"Get the fuck back. I won't repeat myself and if I was in Clem's place I would already kill you." Ellie threatens and he listens. 

"It's none of her fault, I'm surprised that you survived that long with this gate, it broke almost immediately, this whole thing is getting worse and worse by every second." Elliot says and everyone agrees with his statement. 

When Clem got back up, she clenches her fist and tries her best not to hit Mitch. "You know what? How about that, since I'm so bad at this how about you'll command everyone here, plan everything, train everyone how to fight and by some miracle make someone cooperate with, how about that?" Clem asks with rage, Mitch backs out. "You can't blame everyone around you because sooner or later we will just throw you out, even your group will have enough of you, I talked to almost everyone, and all of them had to apologize for you, begging me to not kick you out, and just because of that I'm giving you last chance, one more fuck up, one more insult to anyone and I'm kicking you out, understood?" She asks again and he nods and walks off with fear. 

"We're done for today, whoever has a watch is going to the tower, but before I'll need someone to help me repair that gate." Clem announces, Javi, Kyle, and Wyatt volunteered, Minnie wanted to go to, but Clem told her to wait for her in the room and the rest either went to the dorms or stayed in the courtyard and talked. 

"This kid could use some beating, he has no punishment over what he had done and you're just letting him push you around." Kyle says, and he's right. 

"Yeah, he'll get some punishment, but no beating, Wyatt what would you say for giving him a hard time tomorrow on training?" Clem asks and Wyatt eagerly nods all of them had enough of his behavior. 

After an hour they were done, and about in the half of their job, Dina, Ellie, and Joel helped too, it was filled with some chatting and false threats from Clem to Dina because she was bothering Ellie, but it was all jokes, at least Clem found some relief from day full of stress, it wasn't a good day either, almost getting bit and getting blamed for letting infected in was enough, and bodies of them were carried out and burned by Elliot and Jack, at least they dragged them far enough so there's no smell of burned bodies. 

"Okay, now it won't break if infected will try to break it, but Delta will still be able to ram it, and there isn't much we can do about it." Javi informs, he's right, it would take one person that would have a car to ram it, but apart from Delta they have no enemies, so maybe it won't be that bad. 

"Yeah, but my plan is to let them inside and at least try to talk them out of attacking, I'm sure it won't work. But maybe some of their people will be smart enough to listen." Clem says. 

"You're joking? If we let them in it'll be the end." Joel retorts and Clem shakes her head. 

"Not exactly, we'll use the tables to make cover around the courtyard, most of us will be hiding, me and some of the members from school will meet them and try talking some sense into them, if it'll fail we're starting to shoot first and if it'll go like planned, they'll die before they can even reach for their weapons and even if they'll be able to reach for them, they'll be completely surrounded. Still a bad idea?" Clem asks with a cocky smirk. 

"A great idea, only if we'll be able to teach those kids to use a gun, you saw how it went today, it'll be hard, most of them never held a pistol in their hand." Kyle informs, he was mostly taking care of teaching how to use a gun. 

"Yeah, I'll work on it with Minnie, she'll be ready." Clem promises. 

"You'll work on more than that, I suppose." Dina teases and nudges Clem. 

"Even if, it's none of your business. I'm going to sleep, bye." Clem quickly says and walks off and after her Javi, Joel, Kyle, and Wyatt walk off too. 

"Really?" Ellie asks in amusement and Dina nods with a smirk. 

"I mean, it is possible, but I can bet they won't." Ellie says with a confident tone. 

"And besides, I can tease her if you did too." 

"I did?" Ellie asks as she doesn't remember it. 

"About Gabe, she told me when I was checking her ribs." Dina reminds her, and Ellie groans, she wanted to forget that. 

"It was before I actually met him, he seemed harmless, but now? I saw how he looks at her, and how he looks at Minnie, and if he'll even fucking try to tear them apart I'll kill him, Clem seems a lot better with Minnie, smiling, eating, not depressed." Ellie says almost the same what Dina said earlier this day. 

"I said the same... Well not killing him part, but I pretty much said the rest." Dina agrees. 

"Well, we at least have something more interesting to do." 

"That is?" Dina asks and Ellie smiles. 

"Making sure Gabe won't have any stupid ideas, Clem told me that he's not... Exactly smart. He'll do anything she asks him because he probably wants something in return if you know what I mean." Ellie explains and she looks at Dina and after a while, it's scrunched in disgust. 

"I hate you." Dina exclaims. 

"You hate your imagination, I didn't say anything and I didn't mean that. We just have to make sure he won't mess between Clem and Minnie and everything will be good." Ellie laughs and Dina rolls her eyes. 

"That we can do, but please don't say anything more about him or I won't be able to look at Clem the same way." Dina begs and Ellie nods. 

"I won't." Ellie promises. 

Clem walks inside Minnie's and Sophie's room and sees that Minnie looks outside the window, looking at the woods behind the walls. Minnie doesn't say anything, she probably didn't even notice or hear Clem going in, Sophie isn't there. Clem smiles, walks to Minnie and wraps her hand around her, lays her head on Minnie's back and closes her eyes. 

"You know, I wanted to be mad at you for not letting me help, but thinking about it now? It was worth it." Minnie informs and Clem humms. 

Minnie turns around and wraps her hands around Clem's waist, and Clem's wraps her hands around Minnie's neck. "So now what?" Redhead asks. 

"Well, I don't want to destroy the mood, but I promised that I'll teach you how to use a gun." Clem whispers scared of Minnie's reaction. 

"How about tomorrow? I'm not going fishing or hunting so I'm practically free all day." Minnie offers with a smile and Clem smiles too. 

"Okay, let's say I'd agree, what would we do?" Clem asks and Minnie smirks at her. 

"I have a couple of ideas, but first, clean your face, you still have clicker's blood all over it." Redhead commands, Clem listens, she has a bottle of water in her old backpack that she used to clean herself. After making sure there isn't any more blood on herself, Clem turned around and saw that Minnie is already laying in bed, obviously wanting Clem to lay next to her. 

"So what do you want to do?" Clem asks intrigued as she faces Minnie. 

"Tell me, how come that we didn't kiss since you came back?" Redhead asks and smiles at the brunette, and shorter girl shrugs. 

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure we can fix that." Clem assures and Minnie nods at her words and connects her lips with Clementine's giving away all of the love and passion that gathered that week when Clem wasn't in school, trying to gather as much support for school as possible, and she found more than anyone believed is possible, but now, Clem has to make sure that no one will die while a heated argument, or when Mitch says something stupid. 

After not an entire minute Minnie shifted herself on top of Clem and in heat of a moment she placed her tongue on younger girl's lips, she wasn't sure if she was going ahead of her, but her worries melted away when Clementine parted her lips to allow Minnie entrance, then they fought for dominance and Minnie won with ease. 

Before things could get any further someone opened the door with a loud thud and Minnie rolled herself quickly off Clem, both of their faces were red, Sophie was the one who opened the door and she was standing there staring. "I'm sorry if I interrupted, I'll be going now." Sophie says, Clem could feel that she has something important to tell, so she decides to stop her from going away. 

"Wait! You ruined the mood already, tell me, what is it?" Clem says, her voice is not mad, but she's disappointed a little, even if she wasn't even sure what the hell just happened. 

"I wanted to tell you after we'd be done with infected when hunting crew wanted to get back, but gate broke down and then the rest happened and I just couldn't find you. But what I mean is that there's a group that took our food on one hunting trip four days ago, and it wasn't Delta." Sophie explains and Clem's eyes widen, she should know about this earlier. 

"And you're telling me this now?! Sophie, you understand that I have to know that kind of things as soon as I can, I have to take care of them." Clem shouts and makes Sophie take a step back. 

"I'm sorry, but we're supposed to give them food again in a week, maybe we can plan something until then?" Sophie offers with a weak smile, she's trying to calm Clem down. 

"Yeah... Sorry for shouting, but if something like that happens again tell me right away, don't do anything else, just tell me, understood?" Clem asks, Sophie nods and walks away, she doesn't want to argue. 

"Well that escalated quickly..." Minnie says and Clem runs her hand through her hair in stress as she tries to think of anything. 

"Calm down, you're overreacting." Minnie sighs and she regrets she said that when she sees the expression on Clem's face. 

"I'm overreacting? Minnie, we're talking about people that maybe are armed to the teeth, and that will kill us when given a chance, and I should calm down? Really?! Have you ever been in a firefight, or an actual fight with a living person that isn't infected?! They're more dangerous than anything else in this world and I'm 'overreacting'?!" Clem shouted, they met her breaking point, she has enough, not thinking about it she goes to the door. 

"No, please, Clem, I'm sorry..." Minnie begs, but Clem doesn't listen she needs some time alone, she rushes out the dorms building and walks outside the walls of school without even preparing herself, Brody was on the watch and Clem told her she'll be back in a while, even if she doesn't know when she'll come back. 

Clem looked around after wandering for two hours, it was completely dark, but she still saw something so it wasn't that bad, she knows that she shouldn't run away, but she didn't know what else to do, she thought that Minnie might understand her, but she can't understand everything. 

She was torn from her thoughts when she heard a crack behind her, she swiftly pulled out her pistol and aimed behind her, no one was there, before she was able to look around someone hits her hard on back of her head making her collapse on the ground and lose consciousness, she doesn't know who hit her, but she knew that she'll make them regret it.


	35. Chapter 35

Ellie lays in the bed in her room, gentle snores of her girlfriend laying on her, the bed isn't as big as the on Ellie have in Jackson, yet she wasn't complaining, it wasn't as bad as sleeping on the ground, or in the rain and she only wishes that Dina wouldn't have to lay on her for the whole night she doesn't mind but her back is sore in the morning. She woke up not entire five minutes ago and she would get up from the bed if not for Dina, she looks too peaceful for Ellie to wake her up, when they'll have to wake up someone will go get them and if they wake up Dina they'll have to deal with consequences and not Ellie. 

Just as Ellie was starting to fall asleep again someone started to knock on the door repeatedly, Dina frowns at that and Ellie chuckles at her girlfriend's annoyance. "GO AWAY!" Dina screams and nuzzles closer to Ellie, but whoever is knocking isn't stopping. 

"I'll go check what the hell they want, if it's nothing serious I'll get back, alright?" Ellie offers, Dina nods even if she isn't happy with her girlfriend leaving her alone in the bed, but right before Ellie can get up Dina kisses her cheek and lays back, but not on Ellie's shoulder, but on the pillow. 

Ellie stands up from the bed careful not to disturb Dina, then she heads to the doors and her annoyance just grows as someone is still knocking on the doors. Ellie opens the doors and sees Minnie, Sophie, and Brody all worried about something. "What the hell do you want?" Ellie asks trying not to sound annoyed, but she fails. 

"I and Clem argued yesterday, she walked out of the room, she didn't come back for the night, and Brody just told me that she walked outside the walls and she still didn't come back." Minnie explains what's going on, Brody confirms what she's saying. 

"She did what?" Ellie asks, she believes them because of how they look, but Clem had to get in trouble since Ellie knew that even if she ran away for the night she'd be back in the morning the same thing happened in Prescott couple of times. 

"And we suspect that a group of bandits that robbed me, Aasim, and Violet out of the food we hunted a couple of days ago might have captured her." Sophie says and Ellie sighs, Sophie might be right. 

Ellie sighs again and hits the wall. "FUCK!" Ellie runs her hand through her hair thinking what to do, she isn't a leader, and without Clem, this whole thing might fall apart. 

"Do you know where those bandits are?" Ellie asks Sophie, Dina is already wide awake, and won't be able to fall asleep again. 

"Yeah. What do you want to do?" Sophie answers and Ellie nods, she has a plan what to do. 

"Okay, get ready, wake Kenny, Joel, Jack, and Elliot up and tell them to get ready too, wait for me in the courtyard, I'll explain the rest what we're doing later." Ellie commands, Sophie nods, and the three walks away. 

Ellie closes the door and groans, she wasn't expecting to Clem get captured, but they could be prepared if they knew earlier about bandits. "What happened?" Dina asks, she didn't hear the conversation. 

"Clem got into an argument with Minnie, a serious one, Clem went outside the walls of school, telling only Brody and telling her she'll be back in a while, she's still somewhere out there, and Sophie suspects the bandits that robbed them from the food they hunted captured her, and it may be possible if Clem was upset she's easily distracted and she might not hear something then got captured, I'm going for her, Sophie will lead me to them." 

Dina listened to Ellie. "I'm going with you, she's my friend too. And don't even try to argue, we both know I'll go with you, and it won't matter if you agree or not." Dina says and she's right, Ellie once won an argument with Dina, but it was something stupid that Ellie doesn't even remember. 

"Then get ready, we're moving out in couple of minutes." Ellie informs and Dina gets up, picks up her jacket, and backpack and puts them both on, Ellie does the same. 

"Let's go." 

Ellie and Dina slowly made their way to the courtyard, what surprised her is that almost everybody was awake, only Jade, Kate, and the kids were missing. 

"Okay, listen to me, Sophie suspects that Clem got captured by bandits after she left the school yesterday, Sophie, me, Dina, Kenny, Jack, Joel, and Elliot will go look for her, are there any other volunteers?" Ellie asks with a raised voice so everybody will hear her. 

Almost everyone volunteered, Ellie wasn't surprised when Minnie volunteered, but when Mitch did, it surprised her. "So tell me, Mitch, why the hell would you want to help Clem? We all saw that you hate her, and I don't know if I trust you with a gun." Ellie asks with intrigued voice and Mitch scoffs. 

"Let's say I started to understand that she wants to help us and that what happened with Marlon was his fault, not Clem's, but I won't explain it to you, and you don't have to trust me." Mitch replies, he sounds somewhat honest, Clem would probably believe him. 

"Okay, you can go with us, but you're not going last, I'm not trusting you, Minnie, take only a pistol, you won't be needing anything else. The rest, you'll defend the school when we'll be out there, and we might not come back today, so don't worry if we don't." Ellie commands and everybody nods, people that are going with her are going for equipment, while the rest is scattered across the courtyard, Ellie picks up a Mosin-Nagant, she's still not sure where Clem found it, but she likes that weapon and before Dina can choose Ellie picks up a Parker-Hale M82 with a scope and hands it to Dina. 

"We'll need a sniper and I know that you're good with those." Ellie explains and Dina nods at this. 

When Ellie sees Minnie looking at pistols not knowing what to do she approaches her. "Need some help?" Ellie offers and Minnie nods. 

Ellie picks a Five-SeveN and gives it to Minnie, and Minnie doesn't know what to do with it. "Clem didn't teach you anything yesterday, did she?" Ellie asks even if she knows that's true and Minnie confirms it. 

Ellie shows Minnie how to use a pistol, and she somewhat gets it, almost better than everyone, only Jade understood it faster. "Okay, but remember, if you don't want to use it put the safety on and don't keep your finger on the trigger if you don't intend to shoot." Ellie teaches and Minnie nods her head and puts on the safety as Ellie taught her. 

"We're ready?" Ellie asks her squad and all of them nod. "Sophie lead us where they robbed you, if they're still there we'll 'ask' them where they're hiding, if it won't work we'll try to track her." Ellie says, Sophie starts to lead them to the place where she got robbed. 

About two hours of walking pass and Ellie gets more worried by every minute and Dina notices it. "Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine and even if, she survived something we thought we thought will kill her, she's tough as nails. I mean, who knows, she might be actually working on getting out of the place she's in right now. Or maybe she wasn't captured at all and we're overreacting." Dina tries to calm Ellie down and auburn-haired girl shakes her head at those words. 

"Something must have happened, she would come back in the morning if nothing happened, she had done the same thing in Prescott. But we have to find her alive, everything will go to shit if she died, all of us followed her, not kids back at school, and you know it." 

"Focus on getting her back, because I'm sure she's alive, she wouldn't let them kill her." Dina reassures and Ellie nods at her words, she's right, Ellie would do something stupid if she'll keep worrying. 

"Okay, they robbed me not far from here, we can't go by road, I say we split, they'll attack from both sides if we go in the middle and that way we'll be able to surprise them." Sophie suggests and Ellie agrees to her plan. 

Ellie takes Dina, Minnie, and Kenny, Joel leads Kenny, Sophie, Jack, Mitch, and Elliot. All of them know that it's they have to keep some of them alive, but that doesn't mean they will let them live after they get what they need. When they got closer they saw three men talking quietly about something Ellie couldn't understand from the place she's in right now. "Okay, Minnie, the one that sits on the chair, you will come as close as you can to him and point your gun at his head, but don't pull the trigger, Dina you do the same with your rifle to the one that looks on the road, but you can keep your distance, I'll take care of the one patroling, Kenny cover them if something happens." Ellie explains her plan, no one has a better one and so Ellie splits up from her squad, looking for the guy that's patrolling the area, it's dark enough in the woods to sneak around and clouds covering most of the sky make it even easier. 

Ellie spotted the man that was patrolling the area, slowly she sneaks her way to him, using trees as cover, using the opportunity that he was turned away from her, she put her arm around his neck and started to strangle him, she didn't want to kill him, they don't even know if they are the people that captured Clem. When the man lost his conciseness, Ellie looked to Dina nad the rest and they had done what she told them to do, even Minnie and she wasn't sure if she'll be able to put a gun against the head of someone that they don't know. 

Ellie dragged the unconscious man with her to the rest of his friends. "What the hell?" One of them mutters. "What did you do?!" He asks in a shout and Ellie smirks. 

"He's alive, but your words may change that, I want some information from you, and maybe I'll let you live." Ellie explains with a calm voice. 

"Why should I? One shout and you're all done for, my friends are on the other side of the road." He says in a confident tone and smiles like a maniac. 

"I know. Do you think I'm stupid? I have another team already working on them." Ellie informs him and he pales at her words, Dina looks at the other side of the street and sees Sophie waving to them. 

"They took care of them." Dina says and Ellie nods. 

"Take them to the road, we'll ask them all at one time. I'll inform the rest." Ellie commands. She walks off to the other side of the street and sees that one of the bandits is dead, he has a slitted throat, in total, there are four bandits. "What happened?" Ellie asks, she wanted to do it without any casualties on both sides. 

"It was this or risking to get shot, and if we'd start shooting all of them would end up dead." Jack explains, he's hand are in the blood, so he's the one who killed him. 

"Take them to the road, we'll interrogate them together." Ellie informs, Joel nods and tells his people to start working, while he hides the body. 

About five minutes later all six surviving bandits are kneeling in front of a group all of them throwing insults at Ellie and the rest. "We won't kill you if we won't have to, we just want to know where your camp is." Ellie promises, and all of them say that they don't know what she's talking about. 

"Sophie, you recognize them?" Ellie asks, Sophie nods and even says who said what to her. 

"I'm asking once more, where's your camp." Ellie asks in a stern voice, none of them is saying anything. 

"Minnie, give me your gun." Ellie commands, Minnie listens to her. Ellie puts safety off and puts the gun to one of the bandit's head. 

"I'm not joking around, where's your camp." Ellie asks once more and the bandits she's aiming at seem terrified. 

"You want that girl in a baseball cap?!" The one that has a pistol aimed at his forehead asks. 

"Yes, her, where's she?" Kenny asks, he's getting more and more annoyed with him. 

"I have a map in my jacket, I'll reach for it slowly, our camp is marked there as well as the place we are in right now." He says, Ellie nods at him, allowing him to reach for the map, others scold him for his actions, but he prefers his life over death. He hands Ellie the map, she looks at it and sees two marks, one point where they are and the other one marked as 'CAMP'. 

"We have what we need, we can go." Ellie informs and places the map in her pocket. 

"Okay, but what with them? They can follow us to their camp, right?" Mitch asks, he's right, but killing them might not be necessary. 

"Yeah... But what do we do with them? Kill them?" Elliot asks. 

"We should kill them, they kidnapped Clem." Jack says it's the safest way out of this, but not necessarily the best. 

"It's your call Ellie." Joel informs, Ellie nods and starts thinking, they don't have anything to tie them up with, Jack's way is safest, leaving them without tying them up is risky they could inform people in there about Ellie's group. 

"Do you have any kind of rope?" Ellie asks the bandits and they nod, one of them points at the backpack back at the hideout in the woods, Jack goes for it and there is a lot of that rope, they were lucky to have it, Ellie wasn't sure what to do if they didn't. Jack and Elliot tied the bandits up while the rest made sure they didn't try anything. 

After five minutes bandits were tied up and left at the side of the road, they couldn't move, it was possible to untie themselves but they'd have to work together and by the looks of it, it won't be possible since everyone blames everyone else but not themselves. "Well, we only have to get Clem back." Ellie says to herself and all of them start moving behind Ellie, she's holding the map with the camp marked on it. 

"Couldn't we trade them for Clementine?" Dina asks, Ellie shakes her head, she can't trade them, by the looks of it they wouldn't accept the deal, or take their people and open fire on Ellie and the rest when they'd turn away. 

"No, they wouldn't accept the deal or shot us after we'd get Clem back, either way, it won't work for us." Ellie explains, Dina nods. 

Ellie realized that she's still holding Minnie's gun, she wants to give it back to her, when she calls her she seems furious about something. 

"What is it?" Ellie asks after handing Minnie her gun, Minnie sighs and shrugs. 

"I guess that I blame myself that they captured Clem if I didn't tell her she's overreacting yesterday she'd still be back at school, trying to help us." Minnie admits, her voice breaks a little. "What if she's already dead and that's all because of me? I won't be able to forgive myself." 

"I know Clem for four years by now, she had many close calls, but no matter what happens to her she always manages to find a way to stay alive, don't worry, somehow we'll get her back, who knows maybe she'll be out before we even get there." Ellie reassures, Minnie nods silently and slows down to get to the back of the group, her head slightly dropped. 

After another hour of walking they were not that far from the camp of bandits, but they decided to go on a hill that should provide them some cover against the bandits and check the place out with Dina's rifle. 

"What you see?" Joel asks, Ellie looks around the camp again through the scope, she spotted around eighteen bandits, it won't be easy to sneak in there, but Ellie also suspects where Clem is, it's some sort of summer camp with lodges and one of them is far worse state than the others, she's almost sure that Clem is in there, there are spotlights as well as generators, so they'll have lights in the night. 

"Eighteen of them, but definitely not Delta, no organization and their equipment is nothing compared to Delta, just some ordinary bandits trying to survive with robbing people." Ellie replies, she slowly makes a plan for the whole action, it won't be easy, but since they'll have a sniper it should be easier. 

"Okay, listen to me, we have to wait until the night, it'll be easier to sneak by them, Dina and Jack are staying here, Dina you provide us support if we get spotted, Jack you cover her, the rest is going with me inside, Clem is most probably in the most beat-up building, so we head there, if it won't work we might have to capture some of them alive and ask them where she is, but if everything will go smoothly we'll be able to get Clem out, then plan out what to do with them, I don't think we'll be able to just kill them all in one go, Clem's support would be good since she's better than me at planning those kind of things." Ellie talks over her plan, everyone listening closely to her, she wasn't sure if it'll work.

As the hours went by Ellie managed to determine who was the leader, she wasn't looking dangerous, but everyone seemed to be scared of her. After she walked out of the building in which Clem probably is her hands were in blood, it made her worry even more, but she didn't tell anyone, she can't because people might panic and insist on trying to take Clem back now and it would fail, too many people to sneak around in the sunlight. 

In a couple of minutes Ellie would go to the camp with her squad trying to get Clem back, she wasn't stressed at all, nor was she scared, she knew that if something went bad she had the manpower to fight them off. 

"Good luck." Dina wishes and kisses Ellie, she smiles. 

"You too. Jack if something happens to her you're dead." Ellie threatens, he nods with a little bit of scare on his face. 

If everything will go according to plan, Ellie will get Clem back in couple of minutes, it can't be that easy but they can wish for it, her squad starts sneaking to the camp, it was almost midnight, most of the bandits are asleep, only five are patrolling around the camp if Ellie counted them right earlier, they only have to sneak in, get Clem back, sneak out, it's that easy. At least they hope so.


	36. Chapter 36

After hearing a scream that was definitely Clementine's Ellie decided to pick up the pace, they were not that far from the entrance, there was a single guard, but there was no way around him nor a second entry to the camp. Quickly thinking of a plan to get rid of the guard Ellie manages to think of one. "Okay, listen, I'll kill that guard there, after that I'll make sure that no one noticed if I make a sign Joel helps me with the body if they start shooting we fight. Questions?" No one asks a thing so Ellie takes out her knife and unfolds it. 

Ellie run to the guard and stabs him in the neck, and makes sure he's dead, she looks around to make sure no one saw that and fortunately the patrol around the gates was somewhere else, she signed to the rest that it's clear, Joel ran to her and helped her hide the body in the bushes. 

Ellie looked if they can get inside of the camp, the patrol still wasn't there so she and the rest quickly got inside, Ellie didn't stop she lead them to a cabin and looked inside, after making sure no one was there she jumped inside, the rest after her. "Okay, we're safe for now, but don't talk if you don't have to. Look in here for anything useful, I'll watch the door if you see anyone closing in tell me." Ellie commands, everyone nods and walks in another direction of a small cabin. 

The whole cabin had lights turn on in it so they weren't looking for anything in the darkness. After a couple of minutes, they found a couple of rounds of a different kind and Ellie was waiting for a right opportunity to get inside the cabin where Clem is, it's on the opposite side of the camp, two guards guarding it, she just waits for them to go away. 

After some time Minnie approached Ellie. "So she's there?" 

"That's my guess. But I'm not one hundred percent sure." Ellie responds. Minnie sighs and looks the same way Ellie is looking. 

"What if she won't be able to move by herself? What then?" Minnie asks, her voice is filled with worry. 

"She won't let us help her, if they broke her legs, she'll crawl, someone will cut off her leg? She'll jump back on one." Ellie reassures, she knows that Clem isn't the one to give up too easily. 

>Minnie doesn't look convinced, but she nods and walks away. Ellie thinks of what to do after they get Clem back exactly, they have to get out before anyone notices that the guard before the entrance is gone. 

After some planning Ellie knows that going as one group might be risky if they spot them, plus it's a bigger risk that someone will. "Elliot, come here for a sec." she calls for him since he's closest to her. 

"What is it?" He asks while Ellie is still looking outside the window. 

"You and some of the rest will stay here, pass the word to the others, I and one other person will get Clem back, get here and plan it further from here." Ellie says to him, he nods and walks off. 

Then the two guards heard something inside and that didn't go unnoticed by Ellie, she has her chance. "Joel, you're going with me." She quickly says, he's the only one in the cabin that she fully trusts. 

Quickly Joel and Ellie got outside of the cabin, after making sure it's safe, they started to run across the camp to the lodge where Clem probably is, they heard some raised voices from inside, one of them Clementine's. "On three." Ellie whispers, Joel nods and places his hand on the handle while Ellie holds up three thingers and with every second she hid one to the point where her hand was clenched in a fist, that's when Joel opened the door with force. The door almost broke when Joel opened them, they saw that bandits were hitting Clem, but stopped when the door opened, they were startled by it and Clem used that to her advantage, she managed to get her hands free, she took one of bandits gun and she hit the other one in the throat with it, killing him, when another aimed gun at Ellie, Clem threw the gun at him, she can't shoot in here, the third and last one was already tackled to the ground by Joel, Clem started to punch the bandit that got hit with a gun. After quite a few punches the bandit was dead, Clem took a deep breath and tried to get up but failed. 

"Fuck." She says under her breath. Ellie runs up to her, she didn't manage to help either Joel or Clem. 

"You're okay?" Ellie asks after kneeling next to Clem, half of Clem's face is bruised and she definitely doesn't look okay. 

"Sort of. Help me get up." Clem asks Ellie nods, gets up, she reaches for Clem's hand and starts helping her, Ellie sees the pain that Clem has written on her face when she tries to get up. 

"You wouldn't happen to have some alcohol and bandages?" Clem asks when she got up, she limps. 

"Nope. But Dina might have some, why do you need it?" 

"They stabbed me in the thigh, thinking it'll work. They wanted me to tell them everything I know about New Frontier, they somehow know about me being there, I didn't tell them, so they tortured me." Clem explains as it's nothing and walks into the corner of the room and picks up her gun and knife, she checks if they unloaded her gun. 

"You ain't in a state to fight, you barely walk, and we need to be quick." Joel says and Clem nods, she agrees with him. 

"I know, but we have to get rid of them. They sell anyone they catch to Delta, you'd come for me couple days later I'd be sold to Delta and I'm sure they would recognize me." Clem responds and walks back to Joel and Ellie. 

"So, you want to kill all of them?" Joel asks Clem, she shakes her head, she already made her plans. 

"No. If we'll take away shelter from them, as well as food, meds, and weapons they'll fall apart sooner or later. They have generators along with solar panels, I say we use petrol and burn some of the cabins down, this will cause a distraction and maybe we'll be able to kill some more of them, then take their supplies." Clem explains, Joel nods and starts to analyze the plan while Ellie is waiting for his response. 

"It might work. Come on we'll get back to the cabin we came from and we'll talk more there." Joel offers and Clem agrees to his idea. 

"Okay, we're going to that cabin there." Ellie says and points at the cabin where the rest is. "We need to be quick, we have about ten seconds in between patrols." 

"Sure. No problem." Clem mutters out and stands next to the door that Ellie closed earlier. "Just tell me when." 

"Now." Ellie says after some time and the three of them rush out from the cabin, trying to reach the other one, Clem stumbles but manages to keep up with Ellie and Joel. For some time. She falls over a couple of seconds after, but Ellie immediately helped her up and she also helped her walk, allowing Clem to put some weight on her. 

Joel opened the door to the cabin and waited for Ellie and Clem before closing it, Ellie came inside, Clem let go of her and lands on the ground, Joel goes inside and closes the door behind him. "That was too damn close..." He breathes out, Clem closes her eyes, ignoring a couple of gasps. 

"What the hell happened to you?" Minnie asks as she knees down next to her girlfriend. 

"They tortured me if that answers your question." Clem says, her eyes still closed, after the beating she took she thinks that even the floor is comfy. 

"So we can get the hell away from that place now, right?" Mitch asks, and that gets Clem's attention, she looks at him and then at Ellie, being sure she planned the whole action, with a questioning look. 

"I thought that no one will cry if he'd die." She replies and Mitch argues right back. 

"Shut up before they hear us." Kenny commands to Mitch as he was the one to argue, Ellie was ignoring him. 

"But to answer your question, no we're not getting out yet. They sell people to Delta, making them a valuable target for us to hit, we'll take their food and meds, burn weapons, take ammunition, not all we burn some of it too, and burn some of those cabins. If they will fall apart Delta will have to find another source of getting manpower." Clementine answers and Mitch seems not too happy that he can't leave this place yet. 

"How do we do that?" Elliot asks he's convinced by her plan. 

"Me, Ellie, and Joel each of us will lead a small group. Each of the group will have their thing to do, I take care of burning down the buildings, Ellie is taking care of guns and ammunition, Joel takes food and meds. I will take only one person, and I'd like to Joel take Mitch, the rest have a choice." Clem explains her plan that she made up on spot, and Mitch already wants to argue. 

"I won't go with him!" 

"I'd take you but I'm sure you'll do something stupid to me, Ellie might do something stupid to you, and I trust that Joel will manage to keep you in line." Clem says with a calm voice, Mitch still seems pissed. 

"Someone help me get up." Clem asks for help, no matter how much she hates to do so, Minnie helps her up. 

"Thank you. Now, quick we need to get going as fast as possible." Clem says, Kenny goes to her and offers his help which Clem accepts, she'd take Minnie if not for her wound, Clem doesn't trust to keep Minnie safe. Elliot and Minnie go with Ellie, while Mitch and Sophie go with Joel. 

"We get back here after we're done with what we're doing, if any of you get spotted all of us will go to help you, we can't afford any loses on our side, and if you have to kill some of them, do it, no one will mind." Clem says, everyone nods, she and Kenny get out through the window. 

"How you manage to do it?" Kenny asks after a few minutes of trying to spot the generators. 

"What exactly?" 

"You were just tortured, and you just start commanding people without any kind of problem, you just go and try to burn down some bandits camp like it's nothing, you can barely walk for fuck's sake." Kenny explains his question, Clem thinks on it for a second. 

"I'm not sure Kenny... I mean, my job back at Prescott mainly was to clear out camps like this or nests of infected, so I treat it like it's nothing. I mean I cleared out a camp with a twisted leg, so a stab wound doesn't make a difference, and I was doing it mostly alone." Clem tries to answer his question the best she can, in meantime, she sees the generators and makes a run for it, Kenny behind her is making sure that she won't fall. 

"Your life got a lot tougher after we got separated, huh?" He asks, and Clem nods lightly. 

"If not for Ellie I'd die, so yeah, it got tough." 

How?" Kenny asks another question while they look for canisters with fuel. 

"A bandit back at that camp hit me with a knife, if he'd a little closer he'd gut me, I managed to kill him, but I was bleeding fast, I managed to get to a little shed and I collapsed there, I was sure it'll be the end, but Ellie saw me get inside, she's the only person that actually won a fight with me since then. After that she got me to Prescott, I stayed there after what happened to AJ." Those words are hard for Clem to say. 

"I'm sorry for what happened, I should be there." Kenny says with guilt in his voice. 

"You can't change the past, and I in a weird way I'm happy you weren't there, because I wouldn't meet Ellie then." Clem tries to lift the mood, even if she does mean every word she just said. 

"Sure." He mumbles while he picks up two canisters. 

Clem quickly picks a few cabins in which they'll spill some gasoline and burn it, Clem runs to the first cabin with a canister in her hands while Kenny ran to the other, another canister in his hands, both of them are supposed to burn two cabins. 

She looks inside the cabin through a couple of the windows and sees that one bandit is sleeping in a bed, Clem quietly opens the window, and slowly gets inside, trying not to scream out of pain in her leg. When she got inside, she pulled out her knife, and sneaked inside the room in which the bandit was asleep, she got closer to him, plans creaked slightly under her, when she got close enough she put a hand on his mouth to stop him from alerting the others, while the hand in which she holds her knife slits his throat, making the white pillow go crimson red. 

Clem hides her knife back and gets back to the window, pulls the canister inside and opened it, she starts to pour the contents of it all over the cabin. 

"FIRE!" Someone outside shouted making Clem get down from instinct, Kenny is already burning the first one. 

Clem continues to pour the petrol and when she's done she looks for a way to light the petrol up, in the part of the cabin, which is supposed to be a kitchen, pack of matches lays on the counter, she picks it up, throws the canister outside the window, she goes outside of the cabin and gets far enough to be able to throw a match inside and to be safe from the fire, when she's far enough she takes the pack of matches and lits one up, then throws it inside, not even two seconds pass when flames burst out through open windows and the whole cabin is on fire, but Clem doesn't wait, she's going to the next one, checking the windows first, but no one is inside of this cabin, she gets inside, pours petrol all around, gets out from the cabin, gets to a safe distance and throws the match to cabin, the whole cabin is on fire. 

She looks to her left and sees that two cabins that Kenny had to burn are already on fire too, she hears some shouting to put it down, but she doesn't care, she goes to the cabin in which she's supposed to meet with the rest, her part was probably the hardest, but she might be wrong. She gets inside through the same window through which she got out and sees that Kenny, Minnie, Elliot, and Ellie already waiting, Ellie looking outside the window. "Any troubles?" Clem asks the group, Kenny shakes his head, Elliot does that too. 

"Nope, but the ammo should go off in a while." Ellie says, Clem nods and walks to Minnie, she seems stressed and she's surprised when she sees Clem all calm. 

"How are you not afraid of all of it? You just burned down some building and you seem to not care about it all." She asks, not in a mean way, she's just stressed and Clem knows it. 

"Have I ever told you what I was doing back at Prescott?" Clem asks, when Minnie shakes her head Clem takes a deep breath. 

"I was cleaning out bandit camps and nests of infected, I'd say it's a normal tuesday for me." Clem says with a confident tone. 

"That explains it." Minnie mutters under her breath. "I want to apologize for telling you that you 'overreact' I shouldn't say it, because now I know you weren't fucking overreacting." 

"People learn on their mistakes, you learned this, I learned not to run away, I don't even exactly know where are we." Clem admits. 

"Couple of hours from the school, someone will have to probably carry you back, you shouldn't put too much weight on your leg." Minnie says with worry, Clem rolls her eyes. 

"Dina will say, talking about her, where is she?" Clem asks, and before anyone can answer ammo gets off, explosions make it hard to hear anything. 

"She's our sniper! She's on the hill outside the camp!" Minnie says with a slightly raised voice. 

"I see Joel... OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Ellie shouts with frustration. 

"What is it?" Clem asks, and Ellie groans. 

"They got spotted, they run here, get your guns ready!" Ellie says, Clem takes out her pistol and gets closer to the window to see if what Ellie is saying is true and it is and it seems that Sophie got shot in the shoulder. 

Clem takes her pistol and looks back at Minnie, she holds her pistol too but she's shaking so hard that it makes Clem hurt a little, she gets up and holds Minnie by the shoulders. "Calm down, nothing will happen to us, but you need to calm down, I can't lose you, just be careful and you'll be alright." Clem says with a confident and determined tone, Minnie nods, takes a deep breath and nods again, she's still shaking but it's not that bad as it was. 

Clem goes to the window again and sees that Joel, Mitch, and Sophie are close. "Elliot, open the door for them." She commands, he nods and opens the door, Joel and the rest get inside quickly. 

"Sophie you alright?" Mitch asks as he pants but before Sophie can answer he gets punched by Joel. 

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Joel shouts as he kicks Mitch on the ground once. 

"What the hell, Joel?!" Clem asks, he looks at her with rage in his eyes. 

"It's his fuckin' fault, he thought that he can take one of 'em down, he tried, got spotted, and if I wouldn't react fast enough Sophie would get shot in the head, not in the shoulder." Joel explains, Sophie confirms what he said. 

"We'll argue later, they'll be here any moment now." Elliot says, and then the bandits open fire on the cabin, the wood is thick enough to stop the bullets. 

"We killed four of them, there should be ten of them." Sophie says as she applies pressure on her wound. 

"Nine of them." Ellie says as she takes cover and pulls the bolt. 

A loud gunshot sound through the air, Dina probably took a shot. "They have a goddamned sniper!" One of the bandits shouts. 

"Okay, on my sign we start shooting, all of us at once." Clem says, everyone nods, she counts to five in her head. "Now!" She shouts, all of them lean out of cover and open fire on them, Clem is sure she took one out, but she saw three other bandits fall too. 

"Only four of them is there." Kenny says, it sounds too good to be true. A couple of minutes passes, shots are exchanged, none from Clem's group got hit, but one bandit got hit in the leg from Dina. Not long after someone shots with a shotgun from inside the building, hitting the table, destroying it in the process, another shot from the pistol sounds through the cabin. 

"I shot him." Minnie whispers, Clem looks back and sees Minnie holding her pistol aimed at the corpse of a bandit, she shot him in the chest, she's shaking even more than before. "I killed him." 

"You saved us. If you wouldn't shot him, he'd kill us." Clem calms her down, as another shot from Dina rings through the area, someone shouting that she killed someone. 

"Sit here, wait for the fighting to the end." Clem says, Minnie nods and drops her pistol, she hugs her legs to her, she and Sophie are the only ones that aren't fighting, but Sophie needs to get herself patched up quick, Clem goes to the corpse of the bandit that Minnie killed and picks up his Ithaca 37 and pumps the bullet inside of the chamber, letting the used shell fall to the ground. 

"Cover me, I'll go outside and flank them." Clem says and before anyone can object she jumps outside and slowly gets from cover to cover to the point where she can shot and hit one of the bandits without much of trouble. She puts the shotgun on her shoulder and leans out from behind a destroyed car, she aims at the bandit and pulls the trigger, pellets hitting bandit, but not killing him, Clem didn't wait and pumped the shotgun and shot again, now killing the bandit, just when she's about to take cover again a bandit leans out and aims at her, he gets shot by Joel from the cabin, there's only one left. 

Clem concentrates and tries to listen for any footsteps, she hears someone cursing under their breath, she pumps another bullet inside the chamber and jumps over the car, she then runs to rock and hides behind it. 

Last of the bandits open fire on the cabin again, he tries to make it look like he's not afraid, but before he can even shout a bullet goes right through his neck, Dina was the one shooting at him. 

"I think it's clear!" Clem shouts to make sure that people inside the cabin will hear her. She goes inside the cabin and sees that Minnie is still sitting in the corner of the cabin, she hugs her legs to herself. 

"Minnie." Clem calls out, Minnie looks at her. "We can go. Come on." 

"I killed him Clem. I know that if I wouldn't he could kill someone, but... I guess I wasn't ready to kill someone. I hate the feeling after it." Minnie says, her gaze goes to the body on the ground. 

"I know the feeling. But it won't be in there forever, for a few days at most. It may sound ridiculous, but it's not as bad after the first time, it's like you get used to it, but whatever happens, don't start to like killing, I can do it without any kind of doubts, or regrets after killing someone, but I don't like it." Clem tries to comfort Minnie, she nods a little and gets up. 

"Can we go?" Ellie asks she and the rest are ready, Sophie is still holding her shoulder. 

"Yeah, we can go." Clem replies, she and the rest start heading to the exit, and then out of the camp. 

A couple of minutes later they reached the hill on which Dina and Jack were waiting for them, Dina immediately started to work on Sophie and then on Clem. "What the hell happened?" She asks while pouring some alcohol into Clementine's wound. 

"I got tortured, Sophie got shot. Mitch might have a broken nose, but don't treat him, he deserved it." Clem replies, Dina sighs and nods, she then starts to wrap a bandage around Clem's thigh. 

"You can't walk in that state if you will it's possible you won't be able to walk for over a month, someone will have to carry you." Dina informs out loud so everyone can hear her. 

"Carrying someone for a couple of hours won't be easy, you know that?" Joel asks Dina, and she nods. 

"Well, we could leave her but after all the mess we've just been through to get her out? It would just be a waste." Dina says. 

"I'll carry her the longest I can, then some will take her after me, we'll just take turns." Minnie offers, almost everyone agreed, apart from Mitch, he was quiet. Minnie picks Clem up, but she has some troubles with it, she won't be able to carry her for long. 

"You enjoy it, don't you?" Clem asks when she sees a small smile on Minnie's face. 

"Yep." Is her short reply. 

It will be a couple of hours more before they reach the school and Clem is still kind of mad she can't even walk on her own, she could, but not walking for over a month is out of the option she just hopes that it won't take as long as she thinks it will to reach the school.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for not updating for so long, but my school finally started to do those online classes which meant I had to change my sleep schedule and I was working on a one-shot for over two weeks and I'm still not done and I don't know when I'll be done but I think that I should end it in about a week and honestly I could do another story just from that one-shot.

They were getting closer and closer to the school, Minnie was again carrying Clem and brunette still hated that she couldn't walk on her own and she also felt guilty for Sophie getting shot and Minnie having to kill someone, she wishes she could prevent it that she would spot the bandit first and she would shoot him not Minnie but she didn't and now it can't stop bothering her. Her leg wasn't good but it wasn't bad either yet Dina commanded her to don't walk a lot, don't run and it would be best if she would lay in the bed her whole recovery but they both know it's not possible, she has to work on her plans on defending the school, start to reinforce the school, she also wants to take a look on the schedule of works around the school and think when she will need who so Sophie and she can think of some better schedule, she wants to see how training is going. When they were at the gates Minnie put Clem down and brunette trying to satisfy Dina's request starts to stand on one leg, Dina chuckles but doesn't say anything. "I want to say that I owe you all for saving me, and I'm sorry about your shoulder Sophie." Clem says out loud when they wait for someone to open the gates. 

"Don't be, you weren't the one to fuck up." Sophie says, she doesn't curse a lot but when she does she means it, she also glares at Mitch, he didn't even try to apologize. 

"But it was my plan." Clem mutters out, she can't think if maybe she'd assign different teams, or maybe is the plan was something else maybe no one else would be hurt. 

"Plan was good, kid. But SOMEONE fucked it up." Joel says and starts to glare at Mitch too and he still doesn't seem to care. Mitch scoffs after a couple of seconds of Sophie and Joel glaring at him, he muttered out an apology but everyone is almost sure he wasn't honest, not long after Brody opened the gates and when she saw Sophie she hugged her and started to ask what happened and then she started to blame Clementine. 

"Stop Brody, it wasn't her fault." Sophie calms Brody down and puts an arm on Brody's shoulder, shorter girl shakes her head disagreeing with her girlfriend. 

"She got herself captured if she wouldn't you would be fine." Brody continues, everyone was already inside the school, only Brody, Sophie, Minnie, and Clem stayed. 

"No, it wasn't when we rescued her it was after, we had to get rid of the bandits, Clem had a plan to do it, the plan was good, me, Joel, and Mitch were supposed to get their food and meds we'll need it, so we're sneaking our way through the camp and Mitch had a great idea of trying to take down a bandit, of course, he failed, they spotted us, I got shot in the shoulder and I'd die if Joel wouldn't react on time, it wasn't her fault." Sophie explains and Brody's face softens and is red from embarrassment and she starts to apologize to Clementine. 

"Don't mention it." Clem says to stop Brody from apologizing and she does stop, Clem starts to lose her balance but before she can fall down she puts her arm on Minnie's shoulders and tries to regain her balance Minnie helps her. "And as much as I want to talk some more, I need to sleep." Clem says and starts to jump on one leg to the dorms, Minnie still helping her and looking surprised that Clem just keeps jumping on one leg not caring that she looks stupid, of course, before they could reach the dorms some people approached them. 

"What happened to you?" Christa asks, Omid following her. 

"Who did it to you?" Gabe asks with anger in his voice, and Clem could practically feel Minnie rolling her eyes. 

There were some more questions that were basically the same but said in another way, Clem answered them all and explained that they were getting rid of the bandits because they were selling people to Delta. "So, Mitch fucked up. Again?" Louis asks and Clem nods still with guilty face. 

"Yeah. As much as I want to talk about how much fun I had while they tortured me I prefer going to sleep." Clem jokes but no one find it funny, it's not like she's surprised her jokes are mostly shitty. 

"Sure, but one more thing." Kyle interrupts and he sounds very serious, Clem tells him to continue. 

"We found a boy in the woods while we were hunting, he's asian, he told us his name is James, we didn't want to risk it, so we tied him up in the cellar to Louis dismay." Kyle tells her and she nods slowly and processes the information. 

"He's hurt, we patched him up so he won't die he also told us that he's chased by Delta, so I thought that you know, an enemy of enemy is my friend, you know?" Louis says and he doesn't maintain eye contact. 

Clem thinks a little what she wants to do about that boy, he might be a threat but if he's wounded by Delta he might as well help them fight them off. "I'll deal with him in the morning, he won't be able to free himself?" Clem asks, Eliot says that he won't, Clem trusts his opinion so she doesn't tell anyone to watch him even if it may be a mistake. Right before they reached the dorm Ellie approached them, Clem and Minnie turned to her. 

"Clem, I have a favor to ask you, could Dina have watch tomorrow and she'd swap with someone?" Ellie asks, Clem immediately nods knowing who will be a replacement for this night. 

"Sure, tell Mitch he has a watch and if he'll resist you can tie him to a chair and somehow put him in the tower." Clem says, Ellie smiles and walks back to Dina and tells her that Clem agreed but brunette doesn't see what happened next as Minnie and her started to head to Minnie's and Sophie's room again but this time they actually reached it. 

"What do you think about that whole James? Louis weird when he talked about him." Minnie asks, she let go of Clem and brunette now walks normally but limps, she needs to get changed and Minnie just turned around and looks outside the window in the room looking at the courtyard, most of the people are there. 

"Honestly? I think that Louis might like him." Clem answers as she puts an oversized hoodie, she found some fairly clean cargo pants, she tells Minnie that she can already turn around she does that and then continues their conversation. 

"After knowing him for not entire day?" Minnie says with a smirk trying to remind Clementine of what happened on the bell tower, Clem remembers and just rolls her eyes. 

"How are you feeling? About what happened earlier?" Clem asks with a worried voice, Minnie shrugs and shakes her head. 

"I mean, I feel horrible because I actually killed someone, but I don't regret it? I didn't want to kill anyone but I know that if I wouldn't someone could die, be it me or anyone else." Minnie answers honestly with a slight smile, Clem smiles too just a little. "If I knew earlier that this will happen when I told you to not overreact I wouldn't say anything." Minnie admits with some guilt in her voice and Clem shakes her head to stop her from thinking that it's her fault. 

"If I wouldn't go outside the school nothing would happen, I could just try and calm myself down in the courtyard or something." Clem says and Minnie shrugs again, they both blame themselves for what happened. "I promise not to ever run away again, something could happen to someone, Sophie getting shot is enough for me and if something happened to you, Ellie, or Dina I wouldn't forgive myself." 

"I hope so." Minnie says with a slight smirk. "How about we get some sleep?" Clementine nods at Minnie's offer, both of them lay down, Clem almost immediately wraps her hands around Minerva's waist and gets as close as she possibly can, Minnie helps her do that and right before she falls asleep she kisses Clem softly on the forehead, she's sure that Clementine is already asleep because she hears little, quiet snores, Minnie slowly falls asleep to those sounds as well as some chatting from the courtyard.


	38. Chapter 38

Clementine's eyes open slowly as she feels sun shining on her face, she squints after opening them and shifts to be out of the way of the light even if it was a little hard because of death grip Minnie had on her, red-head had it easy as she was lying closer to the wall so sun's light didn't reach her, Clem remembered about this whole James, she has to talk to him and she wants to do it as fast as she can. 

She works on Minnie's arms to let brunette go careful enough to not wake the taller girl up. When Clem was free she sat and she winced in middle of it, she starts to feel her bruises and that small burning sensation on her leg right where a wound from the knife is, she's lucky bandits didn't hit the bone or she'd have to wait for much longer to walk. Clem gets up and shivers went throughout her whole body, even if the sun is shining it's still cold, very cold, Clem didn't feel that earlier because of Minerva's body heat, she just hopes Minnie won't get cold but she doesn't want to wake her up yet, Clem knows it's early, earlier than the time at which most of the people wake up at because it's really quiet outside and normally someone would talk. 

Clem looks down at the very oversized hoodie, she doesn't remember where exactly she got it but she knows she liked it because it was comfy but she doesn't look intimidating in it, that's for sure. Clem took off the hoodie, she didn't have anything apart from sport's bra under it, she quickly started to look through the bag of her clothes and making a mental note to get it somewhere else than a bag, it's not easy to find anything in there, she quickly pulled out a t-shirt, a blouse that wasn't so oversized and a light blue jean jacket. Clem turns back to the bed and looks at Minnie, she's still peacefully sleeping, Clem gets closer to the bed, leans down and kisses her on the cheek and walks out, she hopes that boy held in the cellar is already awake or that she'll be able to wake him rather quickly. 

When she got out the room she started to head towards the entry to the cellar in the halls, at least she doesn't have to walk out outside yet, she hopes it'll get warmer later. She opens the door to the cellar and walks down on wooden stairs, they creak lightly under her weight and she's sure she heard someone gasp in there and she doesn't recognize the voice, so it must be that boy, Clem's wondering now if she should take a gun with her. She walks closer to the boy, he sits in the same chair in which man that Ellie killed sat, she takes another chair puts it in front of him and sits on it, he glares at her whole time. "What do you want?" He asks with aggression in his voice, Clem looks at him, her face not showing a single emotion. 

"I just want to know what you did to Delta that they try to kill you. " Clementine says her voice is also emotionless, she's still staring at the boy, right in his eyes, her face not even flinching. 

"I did nothing, they attacked my camp in the night, I barely escaped, I passed out, I woke up here, someone briefly explained what happened and I did the same to him." James explains, Clem examines his face for any signs of him lying she sees none but she doesn't know if she should let him out, she knows what sick bastards are roaming around the world, and he might be one of them. 

"I have an offer to you." Clem says, he looks at her but his eyes now show exhaustion, not anger or hate. 

"That is?" 

"Well, I'm in the lead of defense in this school against Delta, we could use some additional hands, you can't fight? We'll teach you. If I should be honest, I'd appreciate is you'd just help us reinforce this place." Clementine says he still looks at her before asking. 

"What's in it for me?" 

"Well, for starters, I'll untie you, you get something to eat, drink, you'll get assigned room, there's two bunk beds, desk, and a wardrobe in each of it. If you don't want to help, I can always just untie you and send you on your way." Clementine offers still looking in his eyes, she can see that he's thinking about it. If Delta had attacked his camp which means that he doesn't have where to go and the closest community is almost a day of way away from school in a car. 

"One condition." He breathes out, Clem nods so he'll continue. "I don't kill anyone, no matter if it's infected or not." James says, Clem can agree to these terms, he can always go fishing and hunting more often than the rest since he won't have to fight as well as he'll be able to help more with making this place safer and ready for Delta. Clem gets up from the chair and walks behind the boy, she could see in corner of her eye he's closing his eyes shut, maybe he's wishing she won't kill him. Clem unties him and stands again in front of him after moving the chair out of her way and reaches out to him, offering him help to get up, he grabs her hand and gets up. 

"Let's get you something to eat." Clementine says, he nods weakly, she starts going to the cellar doors that lead outside the school, he follows her and walks out after her outside, she closes the doors after she knows that he's out. She leads him to the tables, she's still limping and she's sure that he noticed it, if he'd want to he could easily knock Clementine over and run before she could get up but he doesn't, Clem gestures to James to sit down and he does so, and she sits next to him. "Well, I don't know where food is, it was here yesterday, now it's not, they had to move it while I was gone. We have to wait for someone to get out." Clementine informs him, she doesn't have the slightest idea where they took the food and the school is too large to quickly search it, she still doesn't trust James enough to split up so he'll be able to look in other places than Clem would and with Clementine limping it'll be faster to wait for someone to get out. 

It took at least ten minutes for someone to get out and in meantime Clem got to know James a little more, people who walked out were Dina, Ellie, Ruby, and Aasim, she can't see anyone else, yet the thing that gets most of Clementine's attention are crutches in Dina's hands. "I knew you won't be able to sit in one place." Dina says in scolding tone, Clem just smiles at her and accepts the crutches then leans them against the table. 

"Ruby, you know where's food? I wanted to give him some but I can't find it." Clementine asks, Ruby nods after a quick second. 

"Sure, I'll bring some, if I'm right Sophie will do something later today if we'll have luck with hunting or fishing, so something to look up to today." Ruby informs before walking off, Ellie, Dina, and Aasim sit at the same table as Clementine and James are sitting at. 

"Ellie, just from curiosity, how did you know where I was?" Clementine asks, she knows how to not leave any trails behind her. 

"Well, we suspected that the same bandits that robbed Sophie attacked you, so we took her, she lead us there, we managed to get them by surprise but one of them got killed, they told us where the camp is. They're still probably tied on the side of the road or got already mauled by infected." Ellie explains, Clem's sure that it's true she knows that if she would be focused she'd be able to hear the bandits earlier and maybe fight them off or just avoid them. 

"That explains the bruises." James says under his breath but it was still loud enough for the people sitting around the table to hear, they look at him for a second before continuing to talk. 

"If I see you walking without those." Dina says and points to the crutches. "I'll kick your ass." 

"Normally, I'd say something sarcastic back, but looking at a couple of months without walking? I'll just do it." Clem says back with some kind of disappointment in her voice. 

"So we're letting him stay?" Aasim says while glaring at James, Clem can see that James is a little uncomfortable by the question. 

"Well, I guess. We can't stop him if he'll want to get out of here and looking at my 'great' friendship with Mitch? He'll want to run away sooner than later." Clem jokes a little earning a chuckle from Ellie and Dina, she hopes that Mitch won't annoy her, just for one day. 

"Much to Louis' dismay." Dina smirks, James' face reddens a little but no one notices. 

After Ruby came back with food for James she sat with the rest at the table and Clem has an idea in her head. "Ruby, Aasim, what do you think about Mitch?" Clem asks not looking at either of them. 

"Well, I'd say that he should calm down just a little. You killed Marlon, true, but it was Marlon's fault, he shouldn't try to attack you again, and now Mitch thinks you'll get us killed with your help, but I'm pretty sure that we either die or Delta kidnaps us if not for you and people you brought." Ruby says honestly, Clem looks at her with a questioning look, she kind of expected for some more support to Mitch's actions, that they'll say that 'he has his reasons'. 

"Double that." Aasim's quick answer is, he seems a little bit more nervous around Ruby. 

"You'd die either way." Dina says in a dark tone, everyone looks at her for a second not understanding what she means. 

"They use all of the people they kidnap to fight their wars, I didn't because I had medical skills and I'm not great with fighting so I got placed on that boat but the rest... Lilly turned sibling against each other, one of them wanted to escape and she convinced her sibling to go with her, they didn't make it far before Lilly found them, she told them to fight, who survives can stay, who dies..." Dina explains after another second, she seems phased by what happens at Delta, she probably wishes to help all the kids. 

"I'll do what I can to stop them." Clem mutters out, she didn't mean to she voiced her thoughts really. 

"You can't stop them with one battle, if it'll end on one." Ellie says, Clem sighs, she did tell her she'll be on the war with Delta but maybe Ellie doesn't remember or heard it. 

"You remember that I told you I'm helping New Frontier win the war with Delta? That's how I can stop them." Clem says with some confidence in her voice, she can feel the disapproving look from Ellie on her. 

"Why? Clementine, for fuck's sake, you always help others if you can no matter if you'll get something in return or not, so why the hell do you want to fight this time?" Ellie asks with an annoyed voice, she sighs afterward. 

"I don't know, maybe I'm an idiot. Or maybe I don't want Delta to attack the school again. One of them." Clem replies with the same amount of annoyment, she doesn't like arguing with Ellie but they're different in many ways and that's what causes most of the arguments. 

"Just think it through Clem. You probably won't get anything out of winning this war, if you win, and in Jackson, you'll be safe and have everything you'll need." Dina says and her arguments are reasonable but if Clem decides to not stick around Richmond and go to Jackson she at least wants to make sure that her nephew won't get born into a war with Delta, she wants to do it at least that if she can. 

"Javi told me he treats me like family, Kate's pregnant so he told me I'm going to be an aunt to his child, I don't want him or her to be born into a fucking war, after that if I decide to not stick around in Richmond I'll go to Jackson." Clem says back, she gets a complete another look from Ellie as well as from Aasim and Ruby, James is too preoccupied with eating. 

"Oh... Yeah. Okay. That makes sense now." Ellie says and doesn't say more, it's not like Clem expected her to. 

"Wait, so there is a possibility that you won't even go to Jackson?" Dina says and Clem slowly nods. 

"You should." Dina states, Clem thinks about it for a minute when the rest is talking, Clem liked Jackson far more than Richmond, she wants to take Minnie with her too if she'll want to go and she's sure that if Gabe still like Clementine then Minnie will do something about this and Gabe might not like how it'll end so going to Jackson is a little bit safer than staying in Richmond, Clem really doesn't know where she wants to go anymore. 

After another good thirty minutes almost everybody was out of the dorms, she told people about James staying they nodded and even not one minute passed when Louis offered to show him around, Clem agreed to his offer, she talked a little what they'll be doing today, and it'll be training again and starting to reinforce the gates further as well as turning some tables to already provide some cover, Clem also told kids to use Tenn's supplies and do some warning for Delta, she then told Sophie she wants to look at the plan of the building, so now she and Clem are going to old headmaster's and Marlon's office which now belongs to Sophie. 

"I was cold without you." Minnie says with a smirk on her face, she probably caught up to them after Clem and Sophie left the courtyard. "And lonely too." 

"I'd stay with you but I had to talk with James. But if I get an opportunity to stay longer in bed next time I will." Clem promises with the same smirk as Minnie has, they can hear Sophie chuckle. "What?" They both ask in union. 

"Nothing. It's just that something always happens that you can't spend some actual time with each other and when nothing happens someone ruins it." Sophie says and it's kind of true, someone or something always screwed up any opportunity yet even they had no time to really get to know each other they still love each other even if they can't show it much. 

"Yeah, you were one of those people." Minnie says with a teasing tone. 

"Guilty as charged." Sophie smirks back at them. They reach the office and Sophie tries to use the wrong arm and winces when she moved it too much. "I still wonder how you walked around with bullet wound in your side." Sophie says out loud, Clem shrugs, it was some kind of motivation for her to keep moving, even if it hurt to do so. 

Sophie opens the door and lets her sister and Clem inside and closes the door, she quickly looks through the desk and finds the plans of the school, Clem takes them and looks at them carefully, she can plan the defense properly now. "Well, if we can do some mines and place them here, they'll have an unpleasant surprise waiting but it would make walking around and not blowing yourself up a little harder, it's too dangerous with kids around. Hm, maybe hand-made grenades, it could work but someone has to do them..." Clem mutters, she's in her own world, she likes to plan things out, whenever she didn't it ended badly most usual with her getting hurt or being really close to dying, at least in this case she has time to make a plan as good as it can be. 

"Hmm, thinking about what I said earlier... I'll leave you in here for as long as you want to, I'll tell the others that you're planning here and that you don't want anyone to help with it and you two use that time for yourselves." Sophie whispers to her sister, Minnie looks at her with questioning look for a second, she really appreciates it, Minnie wishes she could spend some more time with brunette when no one else is around but always it seems like someone or something has to stop them. 

"Well, it's not such a bad idea... But I'll have to make her stop working on it for a second." Minnie points at Clementine still looking at school plans and muttering something Minnie can't hear. 

"I'll tell them you'll come back in... Five minutes. If it'll take any longer they might suspect you're not exactly planning anything." Sophie says and leaves the office, Minnie doesn't wait any longer even if she thinks that Clementine looks adorable when her eyebrows are furrowed a little in focus. Minnie gets behind Clem and wraps her hands around her, pressing her body against a shorter girl before kissing her on the temple, she felt Clem stiffen up against her, she wasn't even aware Minnie was still in the room. 

"I got us five minutes for ourselves, no one or nothing will interrupt this time." Minnie informs, brunette turns around to face the red-head Clem sees a little bit of worry after she didn't tell anything to Minnie but it wasn't like she didn't want to say anything, she got lost in Minnie's freckles, they're barely seeable but Clementine is really good at spotting small things other people wouldn't spot that quick or if they ever would, she once spotted a flash of scope from a sniper rifle, it saved hers and a little girl's life, little girl's parents asked Clementine to go after her, they begged, Clem heard the desperation in their voice, she agreed, not entire ten minutes later she was out of Prescott looking for the girl, it took a week to find her but she did and getting her back to Prescott was easy apart from that sniper and his friends. "Unless you don't want to?" Clem hears Minnie's hesitation. Brunette looks into blue eyes and didn't even notice when she started staring again but she saw that red-head was staring back at her amber eyes. Minnie examines Clementine's face and she sees that exhaustion under all of that confidence and smiles on her face, she needs some rest, neither Minnie or Clem remember when brunette took an actual break from anything, but they can't do much about it now. 

Right before Minnie pulled away from brunette fearing that she overstepped her boundaries Clem wrapped her arms around Minnie's neck and pulled her into a kiss, it's another than any other, there's this affection that was missing between them, love that they can't show to each other, but Minnie felt through this kiss Clementine's exhaustion even more than she saw on Clementine's face which made Minnie take control over the kiss showing all the love, affection she has for the shorter girl hoping that it'll make Clementine feeling better, even if it'll be just by a little bit Minnie will be satisfied. 

After they pulled away and they both opened their eyes they were both smiling but what Minnie immediately notices that Clementine's smile is completely honest, not pretended just to not worry anyone and just that makes Minnie smile even wider, it just makes Minnie's heart melt to see Clem genuinely happy. Minnie closes her eyes again and leans her forehead against Clementine's, she had to lean down a little to be able to do that. "I love you." She whispers out not even caring if Clementine hears it because red-head is sure that brunette knows it. 

Clementine had her eyes closed too and her heart sped up when she heard Minerva's whisper, she knows that red-head loves her and Clem's also sure she loves Minerva. "I love you too." She whispers back she shifts her head slightly to kiss Minnie again but this time it's just a peck. "I have a feeling we're here for longer than five minutes." Clem says after some time in which they were leaning their foreheads against each other, both of them had wide smiles on their faces. 

"I don't care." Minnie replies. They don't know how long they've been just standing there, it could be ten minutes or even half an hour just enjoying their presence but it will always feel like it's too short. 

"Minnie, we have to go..." Clem says with slight hesitation, not because she's afraid of redhead's reaction but she doesn't want to go yet. 

"I know... It's just that we don't have a lot of moments like this." Minnie sighs and pulls away from the brunette, she looks Clem straight in the eyes still with a small smile on her lips. 

"Yeah... I'll try and make some more time for you, I have Javi, Ellie, and the rest for something, right?" Clem says with a smirk, Minnie nods lightly. Clem picks up the plans and Minnie in the meantime looks at Clementine's swift movement, she looks like her leg doesn't even bother her, like she never got stabbed. Like she never got shot, Minerva admires that in the shorter girl, always being able to overthrow her problems just to take care of someone else problems. "Okay, we can go." Clem announces after she grabbed everything she'll need. They quickly went through the corridors of the admin building of the school, as quick as Clem could with her crutches. 

"Bet that Gabe will glare at me." Minnie says, she doesn't know what she did to Gabe that he hates her so much. 

"We don't have to make that bet since we both know he will." Clementine states, she hates that Gabe just can't understand, Clem actually wonders if Gave even tries to understand or if he's thinking of a way to break her and Minnie apart. 

After they walked to the courtyard no one really paid attention to them as everyone was busy with talking, eating, training, or working, only Gabe actually noticed them, and as predicted, he glared at Minnie. "Fucking beanie boy." Minnie says while glaring at Gabe, that earns a giggle from Clementine. 

"I'm fucking sorry, but leave beanies out of it." Chloe says startling both Minnie and Clementine, Clem didn't see Chloe much lately. "That Sophie girl told us you'd be back in five minutes, it was well over fifteen." 

"Have you even planned that kind of thing? It's not easy, you can't even imagine." Clem says to her sister, she shrugs. 

"Nope I never did, and actually, I hope I never will, I can't see myself being responsible of around forty people, I can barely keep a plant alive." Chloe chuckles, both Minnie and Clem look at her. 

"Why am I not surprised?" Minnie asks and Chloe rolls her eyes before walking away. 

"So what are you supposed to do now?" Clem asks, she knows that Minnie should be doing something. 

"If I remember correctly, I think I have to wait for Eliot and Wyatt and we're supposed to see how can we reinforce the gates and what would we need to do it, after that, I'm supposed to be training with Kyle." Minnie says, Clem nods she wishes she could do something more meaningful then looking at the plans and maybe looking over those schedules if Sophie has the written down somewhere. 

"Well, then I guess we'll see each other later then?" Clem says, Minnie nods and walks off to the gates, Wyatt is already there he greets Minnie and now they both wait for Eliot. Clem, on the other hand, is going to the table where Sophie sits, she wants to show her the plans and talk through her plans, Brody is there too, she has training in afternoon with Ellie if Clem remembers that correctly, poor Brody, Clem remembers when Ellie trained with her she still remembers the bruises but at least Ellie had some too. 

Clem sits down across Sophie and Brody and sees a guilty expression Brody's face, she puts the plan on the table before doing anything else. "Clem, I know you told me not to apologize, but I have to, I shouldn't accuse you of anything, Sophie explained to me what happened and I'm very sorry for blaming you for what happened to her." Brody quickly apologizes, Clem looks at her for a second. 

"Don't be, let's settle that Mitch is guilty of Sophie's injury and that you never accused me of anything, okay?" Clem says with slight annoyance in her voice, she know that Brody will still feel guilty because of it, Clem feels the same about Sophie's shoulder, but it can't slow them down. "Actually, I'll give you a bit of advice, try not to think about it much, sometimes it helps." Clem adds and Brody nods and looks down on the table. 

"Okay, so you have something new in regards of defending the school?" Sophie asks Clem nods. 

"Yep, we could make some hand-made grenades, I thought of mines but kids are running around in here and I don't want them to get hurt or killed, and also I think we should set up some traps in admin building if they get that far." Clem continues to tell additions to the plan and Sophie hears her out and Brody is just sitting there not even listening and she doesn't have to actually. 

"It's looking better... I guess? I never had to do something like that." Sophie says with hesitation, Clem didn't plan anything like that, not on that scale but she won't tell anyone. 

"It is looking better. I'll try and think about some more today, I'll tell you if I think of anything." Clem says to Sophie, the brunette is already looking at the plans not even noticing anything around her she's too focused on the plans. If nothing will happen Clem probably will be looking at those plans as long as she possibly can, so to the point where someone quite literally takes the plans of school from her, she just hopes that she'll be able to walk again soon so she can focus more on making people and school ready than just telling people what to do.


	39. Chapter 39

She dodged yet another blow and another, she saw an opening and punched her opponent a couple of times in the stomach, not with her whole force but still enough to annoy her enemy. "Move faster." She mocked, her opponent swung at her and she swiftly dodged the hit and now she's standing behind the opponent, she uses that opportunity and kicks in the back of the knee sending her opponent to the knees, she kicks again but with much less force sending person she's fighting to the ground. "Get up. We're not done yet." She commands, opponent stands up quickly, quicker than she anticipated, she sees blow aimed right in her face and she barely dodges it, a smirk appears on her face as she blocks another blow but now she holds her opponent's arm and knees her in the stomach sending her to ground again. "Think faster." The cycle repeated, Clem dodging blows sending her opponent to the ground she gives her advice on how to be better this time and they repeat it until they're both too tired to continue. "Good fight. You're getting better and better." 

"Yeah, sure you kicked my ass. Again." Jade mutters out as she gets up again, Clem offers her help and she accepts it. 

"I mean it, you are getting closer and closer to actually hitting me." Clem cheers her up, she smiles lightly before walking away. Clem was back at training people, it was a week and two days since she got back from bandits camp, bruises healed up but they're still slightly seeable, and her leg is good only hurts when she puts too much pressure on it. The day when Clem could get rid of crutches was two days ago, Ellie wanted to practice, just some quick spar but Clem wasn't sure about it since she believed Dina about not walking for a month or longer, but Dina agreed and Clem was a bit rusty but after five minutes she was back to her usual self, the sparring didn't have a winner, it was pretty matched. Clementine's relationship with the school's old members are good, even Mitch is more or less civil with her but to her surprise, she gets along with Louis the most if she doesn't count Minerva, Clementine's and Minerva's relationship is getting better and better with each day since Clem kept her word and made a lot more time for redhead is it between training or some chores around the school she always finds some time for a redhead. James stayed and everybody knew that Louis likes him even more than himself and that was something new, but James is oblivious to it even after Louis' poor attempts to flirt. The things are starting to look better and better at the school, they have slightly reinforced the gates and they'll reinforce it even further if they'll get supplies for it, they have barbed wire on the walls of the school, most of the tables are already turned over to use them as cover, they left only what they'll need to eat but they'll have to get inside the school to eat as it gets very cold outside. 

"I'm startin' to believe we might actually make it." Clem hears Kenny behind her, they talked a lot about what happened to them after they got separated but Clem didn't tell anything he didn't have to know it's not like she didn't want to tell him it was that she didn't want him to know what happened throughout this years. She nods agreeing to his statement. 

"Yeah. We might. I mean, most of you followed me on something that may end with the death of us all but this looks good, maybe we'll be able to do it without any casualties too." Clem says, she knows it's probably unlikely but she has hope. 

"With you in command? You're doing a better job than we could. Some of those kids now know how to fight only thanks to you." Luke says, she didn't hear him approaching but maybe because of the chatter around the courtyard, it was close to noon and everyone has a break now. 

"They could use some real fight experience, well... We have to get those supplies for the gates and James did tell us where we can find some useful stuff and we're going today..." Clem starts to think who could she take, Chloe she maybe isn't the best but she is a quick learner, Kate can go too since she's one of the best, Violet too, Aasim is good with a bow and shotguns so that could be a good choice since they're going to a small town about thirty kilometers from the school, Clem will take Luke just to be sure she has someone who actually knows how to fight with someone if she'll need it. "Luke you're going with me, tell Kate, Chloe, Violet, and Aasim they're going too. You have thirty minutes to get ready." Clem informs him, he nods and walks away to tables where most of the people sit. 

Kenny walked away earlier and Clem was alone, some people walking around her, some of them stopped for a quick chat, she hoped that Minnie will be somewhere around so she can talk to her, about anything really, she just wants Minnie to be next to her. "How's been your day?" Clem heard that familiar voice and after that, she felt a kiss on her temple, she glanced to her left and noticed that Minnie was standing next to her, leaning against the wall too. 

"Quite good actually, Jade starts to get better at fighting, the same with Louis, and I get to see you, what could I want more?" Clem asks with a grin, Minnie shrugs before kissing Clem's forehead. 

This for example." Minnie says after pulling away, Clem looks her straight in the eyes. 

"A little bit lower and it'd perfect." Clementine answers, Minnie smiles just a little before kissing brunette on the lips for a few sweet short seconds. "And how's your day?" Clem asks and Minnie thinks about that question. 

"I'd say it's good but you're going for that supplies and I'm sure something will go sideways." Minnie admits in an emotionless voice. 

"Thanks for words of confidence." Clem says with a smirk, Minnie rolls her eyes at that. 

"What I mean is that almost every time you went outside the school something happens to you." Minnie explains she's right and Clem knows it only times when nothing happened to brunette were when she was hunting or fishing but the area is quite safe apart from infected and a small risk of Delta's soldiers, but apart from that Clem didn't get hurt when she was scouting Delta's ship and when she was getting school members from there. Clem gets closer to the redhead and places her head on the taller girl's shoulder. 

"I'll be fine this time, now I'm ready for something going wrong since James did tell us that bandits are there and in addition I'm taking Luke, Violet, Aasim, Kate, and Chloe with me, I'll be fine." Clem promises she wants to hear Minerva's answer. 

"I hope you're right... And I understand that we don't know any other place where it's safer and there'd be the same supplies?" Minnie asks just to be sure she hates the idea that Clem might get hurt. 

"There must be some other place but we don't know any and it might be even more dangerous." Clem answers she doesn't really know what's worse, a place they don't know a thing about or already knowing that they have to face at least ten bandits. 

"Come back as fast as you can." Minnie says, Clem smiles and kisses her on the cheek. 

"I will." Clem promises she doesn't want to stay there longer than she has to. 

About a minute later they joined the rest of the people around the tables, Clem talked around with a couple of people, mostly with Ellie and Dina as they'll be in charge of what Clem usually does when brunette will be gone, but she also talked to Omid and Christa and later to Eliot and Jack. "So wait, you're taking five people against ten bandits and two of yours never were in an actual fight?" Jack asks, Kate fought a couple of times and was pretty good at it, she heard a couple of stories. 

"Well, Chloe was in a fight once but almost died and then she was in another one with me but she didn't exactly fight." Clem says she doesn't know if Violet even fought not infected people but she's almost sure blonde didn't. 

"How well equipped are they again?" Christa asks, Clem didn't think she'd join on the conversation. James told them they have good equipment from the military and he told about a guy wearing some armor. 

"Military guns, one guy in armor, nothing I can't handle." Clem says like it's nothing and for her it is, she once almost died on a job and it was twenty-five thugs with high-end military weapons and armor, Clem almost died because she used too many explosives they were supposed to kill some part of them but the blast ended up in killing every last of them and hurt Clementine too. 

"Nothing you can't handle? It sounds quite dangerous, to say the least." Christa says in scolding tone and Clem looks at her. 

"I didn't tell you, and I beg you don't tell Kenny, but I'm a mercenary, one of the best, there isn't a thing I'm afraid to do." Clem says without caring how it sounds she sees the shocked expression on Christa's face, she wasn't expecting that but the shock died after a couple of seconds. 

"If someone told me the day I met you that you'll become a mercenary I'd laugh in his face." Christa chuckles but Clem can hear worry behind older woman's voice. 

"She fought off bandits, I don't even know how many but a lot of them, just so I could run away with supplies, yeah, I think she can handle it." Jack reassures Christa she glares at him for a second because no one asked him for his opinion even if he tried to help. 

"Christa believe me this isn't as bad as it sounds, I was clearing places out of Runners, Clickers, sometimes even Bloaters or Shamblers or clearing out bandits from some area just because someone pays me to do it, but sometimes it was something easier as protecting someone for some time or just getting back someone who probably got lost and this, at least in my opinion, is even easier." Clem reassures Christa too, woman now looks a little bit more convinced when Clem says it even if she lied about the part when someone got lost because mostly it was someone getting kidnapped for some kind of ransom and usually it was food or other supplies. 

"It's not like I can change your mind... Just be safe, that's all I'm asking for." Christa asks, Clem nods with a slight smile, she always tries to be safe it's not her fault she usually fails. 

A couple more minutes pass, Clem's and her small team get ready, the brunette took a SIG MPX, Violet took an MP5, Aasim took Benelli M4, Kate has an AN-94, Luke took AK-74, and Chloe has an FNX-45 Clem given it to her. Everyone also has backpacks on their backs. They started to go to the van. When they were right next to the vehicle someone run behind them only Clem turned around to see who it is and she saw Sophie. "What is it?" Clem asks. 

"Clem, we don't have electricity here as you had to notice, but James told me that they have solar panels in this town and this school was powered by them too so if you could just look for them." Sophie asks and tries to catch her breath Clem thinks for a while how long Sophie had been running as James was nowhere in the courtyard. 

"Sure. I'll look for them." Clem replies and quickly gets in the van before someone else will try to stop her and turns the car on and starts to head to the gates which get open by Dina, she has watch now. 

"Good luck." Dina says to them, Clem nods at her and drives out slowly as she doesn't want anyone's attention, especially Delta's. 

"So why you chose us? Instead of me, Kate, Chloe and Violet you could take Wyatt, Kyle, Joel, and Kenny and they are better in fighting then we are." Aasim asks, Clem looks at him for a second but she quickly gets her attention back on the road, she crashed once and she doesn't want to repeat it. 

"There isn't any better experience than an actual fight, we can train you for years and it won't get your ready for an actual fight, it's completely different when you know that one mistake might cost your life." Clem explains to him, she sees in the rear mirror that he looks at the floor of the vehicle in fear. "As long as you will listen to me and Luke you'll be fine, just don't try and be a hero, that usually gets you killed." Clem tries to calm him down it sort of works but she can still see the fear in Aasim's, Chloe's and Violet's expressions. 

"How are you so calm? Aasim's shitting his pants and you look like this is some everyday activity for you." Chloe asks in a somewhat surprised voice, Clem shrugs. 

"Some people say I just don't care about my life, but it's not exactly true, I guess that after doing the same shit for three years it finally stops scaring you." Clem answers her and now she can feel Luke's gaze on her, she maybe shouldn't have said that. 

"Three years?" He asks and Clem sighs in annoyance. 

"Yes, Luke. Three years of getting rid of bandits, infected, protecting assholes, that was my life after I and Kenny got separated." Clementine answers not looking at him still being focused on the road, she doesn't want to talk about her past, she hates to do it, the only person she'd be willing to talk about it with is Minerva and fortunately for brunette, no one else asks any other questions. It will take a couple of hours to arrive at the town. 

For the entire ride Clem constantly thinks of what is happening at the school, she was there for not entire two weeks and she feels better there than in Prescott or Richmond, she isn't sure what about Jackson as she didn't compare this two places yet but the longer Clem is in the school the more she thinks of staying there not only because she likes the silence there as well as being able to do something more than just sitting around and doing something only if someone pays you, she likes to go hunting or fishing, it was the way how she got to know most of the residents of the school, it was the way how she tried to straighten things up with Mitch which went better than expected, she feels good at the school and another reason why she doesn't know if she'll go to either Richmond or Jackson is Tenn, if Clem would want to go anywhere else than staying at school she has to take Minnie with her as she doesn't see any other way of their relationship survive and she doesn't want Tenn to choose between Sophie and Minnie. Clem is also sure that Minnie will want to stay with her brother. 

Clementine stopped the car about a kilometer far from the city as she doesn't want to get any unwanted attention, she and her team got out of the car, made sure that they're ready and slowly started to venture towards the town, they don't talk, they're completely silent while hoping that if they meet the bandits sooner than in the town that they'll see them faster and be able to either avoid them or kill them without shooting. Clem just hopes it all will go without any kind of problems.


	40. Chapter 40

"CAN ONE FUCKING THING GO WITHOUT SHOOTING?!" Clementine yells not even thinking about it, they were in the middle of the town and about a minute ago bandits spotted them then started to shoot making Clem's team split, Clem was with Violet on one side of the street with Luke, Chloe, Kate, and Aasim on the other side, Violet wasn't panicking but hers breathing is quickened but Aasim on the other side is completely in panic, Chloe is somewhat calm but her hands are shaking and Kate just froze, they didn't expect for bandits to spot them, and Luke tried to calm Aasim down. they didn't even know when they started to shoot, no one got hurt but one bullet grazed Clementine's shoulder tearing through her clothing and leaving a stinging pain. 

"Clem, do we have a plan?!" Luke asks in raised voice from across the street, Clem leans out just a little from behind a building she's hiding behind and sees that bandits are placed at the end of the street, she counted at least eight of them before she had to get back in cover now she looked around a little more and saw a passage through backyards of houses that will lead right behind bandits giving her a chance to take some out and give Luke and take some pressure off them so they'll be able to move and maybe fight back yet Clem is worried that the backyards may be covered by bandits too. 

"I and Violet will go around the backyards and take them by surprise, it should take the pressure off you and maybe you'd be able to fight back, just keep them busy!" Clem shouts to him, he nods and when bandits stop shooting for a second he and Clem leans out and send a couple of bullets their way no bandit probably got hit but it should keep them from coming near them. At least for long enough for Clem to see if her actual plan has any sense. 

"Clementine, I don't know... I never killed anybody." Violet says with hesitation, Clem grabs her by the shoulder and makes Violet look at brunette. 

"Don't think about it, we're talking about our lives here, we fight people that rob, kill, and rape for fun, do you want to stop them from hurting anyone else?" Clem asks, she was telling herself the same thing when she started to work around Prescott. Violet nods lightly after taking a deep breath and gripping her gun slightly tighter. "Then follow my lead." Clem swiftly gets to the other end of the house and leans out, she doesn't see anybody but she's still cautious, there a couple of fences dividing every backyard but they aren't high so they can easily jump over them. Right after jumping over the first fence, Clem heard two bandits talking in a raised voice so she can hear them even if the rest of them is shooting, the voices are getting closer so Clem and Violet hide behind the pool and wait if bandits will pass them or if they will have to face them. 

"You think that they're the same idiots that tried to steal from us last time?" One of them asks the other, they're getting closer and closer, Clem pushes the stock of her gun to her shoulder hard and Violet follows, both of them aim at the fence they jumped over a couple of seconds ago since bandits will have to jump over it. 

"I doubt it, they aren't as stupid as they were, but there is some blonde too, maybe he's the same guy?" 

"Nah, he had much longer hair than that idiot, plus I didn't notice any glasses or a splint on his leg." Bandit answers, they both jump over the fence, Clem shoots first at the bandit that is a little further than the other one, right after her Violet started to shot, she was far less accurate but still hit bandits back a couple of times, not long after they were both lying dead and probably no one even heard it as their shots will mix with others. 

"I killed him." Violet mutters out, she glances at the dead bodies for a second before shaking her head and trying not to think about it too hard now. 

"Yeah, but we still have work to do." Clem says to the blonde, they get from behind the empty pool and start going through another couple of backyards to the point where they're at the last building, Clem leans out from behind it and glances if they could take cover without getting spotted and brunette saw a trash bin and without a word, she took cover behind it Violet followed her, there was barely enough space for them. "Try and push it, we'll be closer and I'll try and shoot at them unless you want to shoot?" Clem asks even if she knows that blonde will want to push the trash bin. 

Before Violet started to push the bin Clem checked her magazine, it had about twenty-five rounds in it, she put the magazine back and nodded at the blonde, she started to push the bin with some effort but far less than she expected, Clem stood up before bandits could notice the bin and started to shoot, she hit one of them in the stomach, and the other in the chest a couple of times before having to take cover again, she told Violet to stop pushing and checked the magazine again, fifteen, but now bandits were shooting at the bin, so leaning out was too dangerous. "What now?!" Violet asks Clem doesn't answer she waits for Luke and rest to open fire on the bandits too she'd do the same then. Then she hears shooting from her right, knowing that the rest of her team started to shoot at the bandits and in the same moment Clem leans out from the right of the bin and starts to shoot at the bandits too. It took just a couple seconds to get rid of the rest of the bandits. 

"You're okay?" Clem asks after Luke and the rest approached them, he nods and focused on Clem's shoulder. 

"I am, but you're not. Come on let's get this cleaned." Luke says, they see the old workshop, James told them that they have all of the supplies there, Clem and Luke went there through the back door while Chloe, Kate, and Aasim were unloading guns of bandits. They got inside the workshop and turned the lights on, bandits had generators but Clem was interested in solar panels, they won't need fuel. "Here..." Luke mutters while searching through some medical supplies, there are many things they'd want but what got Clementine's attention the most is Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 from 1968, she watches the car on the outside it's in a perfect state she gets quickly to the hood and opens it, she sees that it's the same as the body of the car, perfect state, Clem wonders if bandits even knew what a car they had here, it looks unused for some time, she finds the car keys inside and started revving the engine the roaring of the engine echoed throughout the workshop and scared the hell out of Luke. "Oh boy..." Luke says when he finally spots what did all of the noise. "Don't do that again. We don't need infected on our heads." He says in scolding tone, Clem rolls her eyes but understands him even if infected would attack them long ago all because of all the shooting just a couple minutes ago. 

"You found something to clean the wound?" Clem asks, Luke nods and approaches Clem with a bottle of peroxide, he pours some of it on the rag and orders Clem to take off her jacket, she does as he tells her and takes the rag from him, takes off the blouse and puts the rag on her shoulder wincing a little, Luke then handed her a bandage and she applied it quickly before putting her blouse and jacket on. "I'm taking this back to school, it's in far better condition than any other car I stumbled upon." Clem states, she looks at the car with a small smile, Luke nods, it's an additional car so additional space for supplies even if it's not that much. 

"Okay, now what? We have supplies we need, but you said that Sophie wants those solar panels?" Luke asks, Clem think if they should split, and it's the best choice she sees. 

"Tell Kate to bring the van here and pack everything up in here at least as much as they possibly can, and in meantime, I'll climb up the workshop and look for those solar panels." Clem offers, the workshop is quite tall and with some luck, she'll be able to see everything from up there, at least those solar panels. Luke nods and opens the front door to the workshop that was locked from inside and told the rest what they're doing while Clem was climbing up the workshop without much trouble thanks to the ladder on the back of the building. Clem looks around the town and it's even smaller than she imagined but after five minutes of looking around she spots the house with solar panels, well not one house but three, and now Clem thinks how they'll get them down and how they'll deliver them back to the school and she thinks that the best way will be strapping them to top of the van plus there's a little trailer a couple of houses further so they can use that too. 

"You found it?!" Chloe yells from down the ladder. 

"Yes! I'll need your help." Clem yells back before climbing back down. 

"What do you mean you need my help?" Chloe asks. 

"Well, they're on the roof so I'll need help to get them down, plus I don't think I'll be able to drag a trailer with six solar panels, even if it's too much I prefer having too much than too less." Clem states, Chloe nods lightly, brunette found out that her sister is strong even if she doesn't look like it. "Come on." They walk through the workshop and see that the rest is packing everything they can. "I and Chloe will go for the solar panels, we should be back in thirty minutes if it will go well." Clem informs the rest, they just nod without telling much more. Clem started to walk out of the workshop but she didn't hear any footsteps behind her meaning that Chloe wasn't following her. Brunette looks back and sees that Chloe is staring at something with a smug grin on her face Clem follows Chloe's gaze and finally understands, Chloe is quite literally staring at Kate's butt but apart from Clementine, no one notices as they're too preoccupied with packing the supplies. Clem chuckles quietly to herself before seeing a small rock on the ground, she throws it at her sister to catch her attention. 

"Ow!" Chloe yelps after being hit with a rock in the shoulder, she looks in the direction from which the rock hit her and saw Clem looking at her with a smirk, pink dust appeared on Chloe's face for a short second before she started to follow Clem again. "What did I do to you?" Chloe asks with an offended tone, Clem glances over her shoulder with a smirk. 

"To me? Nothing, but we have something more important than staring at someone's ass. Besides, I think that it's isn't the right time." Clem says in somewhat scolding tone and she can hear Chloe rolling her eyes, no matter how hard Clementine tries she sometimes can't understand Chloe. 

"Oh, I am sorry, but you didn't have to take me, honestly, I think it was stupid to take me." Chloe says and not it's Clementine's turn to roll her eyes. 

"Okay, I could take Joel, but he knows how to fight and fought for more than even I did, so it would give him literally nothing to come here with me, I mean I could take care of it myself, but taking you, and Violet can teach you two something, for example, don't fucking panic." Clementine replies as they got closer and closer to their destination. 

"Not panicking? Yeah, sure, one wrong move and I'm dead and I'm supposed not to panic at that moment I'm not good with handling anger, panic or anything like that especially when Gabe..." Chloe mumbles out the last part but it didn't go unnoticed by Clem, lately, Gabe is more trouble than Mitch always appearing in worst moments, only time when Clementine can actually show affection to Minnie, without risk of Gabe interrupting, is in their room. 

"Well... Hmm... I don't know how to put it..." Chloe says visibly trying to avoid the topic, now Clem turns around and glares at her sister. 

"I don't care, say it how you want." Clementine commands. 

"Well... He tells almost everybody that Minnie doesn't deserve you, that she uses you and that she beats you and that you're too afraid of doing anything about it from fear that she'll leave you, something like that." Chloe says with confidence in her voice, Clem looks at her for a second checking if she's kidding or not but she realizes that she's serious. 

"Why the hell do I have to deal with this shit?" Clem asks herself she knew that Gabe didn't like the idea of her and Minnie being together but she never suspected that he would do something like that. "Does Minnie know?" 

"As far as I'm aware, no." Chloe answers and Clem sighs with relief, she doesn't want to know what Minnie would do to Gabe as redhead already has enough of Gabe. 

"How do you know all of it? I don't think he told you since you're my sister." Clem asks, Gabe is stupid, true, but not to this extent. Probably. 

"Jade is a reliable source of information." Chloe answers the question with a slight smirk, Clem shakes her head trying not to think about all of this and they start to head towards the houses again. 

It took the two hours to take all of the solar panels down and put it on the trailer that Chloe pulled when Clementine was looking for a ladder or anything that would allow them to get on the roofs, the brunette doesn't remember when she was that frustrated at something, taking panels down the houses took most of their time, Luke and others went by and asked if they need any help but both of they always refused, more people would give them even less space to work with. Now Clementine was pulling the trailer whilst Chloe pushed it, it wasn't easy, panels were heavy but Clem and Chloe wanted to do it by themselves. "You know, I was thinking about what you can do about Gabe, and I think maybe you should confront him." Chloe advises, Clem glances at her over shoulder thinking about what she said. 

"I need to find out more about it first, then I'll decide what to do." Clementine answers then start to look in front of her again, she's wondering if maybe Jade understood something wrong but the brunette is sure she didn't. 

After about ten minutes of pushing and pulling the trailer they arrived at the workshop, the rest was taking a break but Luke helped them push the trailer inside after he spotted them, they didn't refuse this time, they were too exhausted to do so. "So, I've been thinking we should stay here for the night, it's getting darker and I don't want to drive in the dark." Luke says, Clem thinks about it and she prefers staying the night in the workshop than to fight infected if they hear them, or Delta in the worst case. 

"Yeah, we'll stay, I need to check that car anyway." Clem says, it's more or less true, it's working but she doesn't know the condition of the car completely, breaks might be broken or suspension but if they are and workshop doesn't have any parts that Clem can use then she can't take it. 

"Well, it better work because we already loaded supplies there." Luke replies, now Clem has to make sure it'll work. They got inside the workshop and Clem spotted straps, Luke told her he found them in the office of the workshop, they used some of it to strap three of solar panels on the van and other three on the trailer, the van will barely fit in the front doors. After Clementine told everyone that they're staying for the night and that they're free to do anything as long as they don't get far enough from the workshop Chloe started to talk with Kate, Violet was in her own world, Aasim was with Luke on the watch out while Clementine is checking the car again and what surprises her the most is that it really calms her, almost nothing made her so calm, sure drawing and playing on guitar somewhat made brunette calm but not to this extent.


	41. Chapter 41

Clementine didn't sleep at all the night they were in a workshop, first she was checking everything she could in her car then she swapped with Luke on the watch out. It was about mid-night when Clem swapped and she was on the watch out until they were leaving the town with most of the supplies, they didn't manage to fit everything but they left what they didn't need. Whole watch out was pretty calm apart from some infected that they only heard but never saw them, it did worry Clem a little, she wouldn't want to get cornered by infected, it usually ends badly. Whenever brunette wasn't thinking about the sounds of infected in the distance she thought of what's happening at the school and if she'll be back before Minnie will find out about Gabe's lies. It annoys the living hell out of Clementine that she got off a sort of hiding of her own after the ranch, she kept low-profile, never made friends apart from Ellie and Dina, didn't talk much about herself, she didn't talk much generally, and after completing her job she never went anywhere else than Prescott, yet right after she lets know people she's still alive it seems like all problems are catching up. 

After a yawn and quick thought of how tired she is Clem started to head back to the workshop, a whole night of working tired her out far more than she anticipated, but at least she made sure that workshop is sort of safe to sleep in for the others as well as she made sure that car won't die on her when she'll need it. Right as she got inside she saw that everyone was there, she sent Violet, who was with her on the watch out at that time, to tell others they have to get up and as Clementine expected everyone was awake apart from Chloe. Kate was trying to wake her up and Chloe was telling her to fuck off and let her sleep, but Kate didn't give up that easily she started to shake Chloe even harder to the point where Chloe gave up and got up, Kate had a proud smirk plastered on her face. "You're doing a better job than I do with waking her up." Clem comments and she feels a gaze both from Chloe and Kate. 

"Why?" Kate asks. 

"Let's just say that I had to throw her off the bed at least twice by now just to wake her." Clem answers with a small smile on her face as she got closer to her car and looked for keys inside, she left them inside that she was sure of, she just doesn't remember where they are. After good five minutes of looking she found them on the passenger seat. "Are we ready?" Clementine asks, trying not to show any fatigue in her voice and on her face, and they seem to not notice it. As soon as everyone was they drove outside the workshop and started to get back to school, it'll be a little shorter now since Clementine decided they can drive a little faster. 

The closer they got to the school the more Clem started to fell tiredness in her, she was about to fall asleep behind a wheel but she fights it with her whole being and that works at least for now but at least they're close to the school about five minutes of driving and when Clementine realizes that she begins to wonder if something happened when they were gone and knowing her luck, something did happen. Just as they got to the gates Clem saw Kyle jumping down the tower and opening gates for them, he eyed Clementine's car for a second before getting back on the tower, what worried Clem is that even if everybody was in the courtyard she couldn't hear any talking, just whispers. Brunette saw Dina and Ellie approaching her as soon as she got outside her car, she gave her gun to Chloe so she'll put it back with the rest when she'll talk with Dina and Ellie if something happened. "So I have some good news and bad news, what do you want to hear first?" Dina asks and Clem takes a deep breath trying to hide her fatigue just for a while longer. 

"Bad first." Clementine answers bracing herself for whatever Ellie and Dina have to tell her about. 

"So, Eliot was hunting yesterday and he came back with three people that attacked them without any weapon, well one of them attacked when two others tried to stop him, they're in the cellar and Kenny beat the shit out of one." Dina says and Clem sighs, another person they caught in the woods, but maybe they weren't that far from school since Clem and Sophie decided to expand hunting grounds. 

"And Minnie beat the hell out of Gabe, well it was one hit but it was enough... He told her a couple of things and he did deserve it... It's going to be best if you talk to her, she's in her room." Ellie continues and Clementine could sense disgust in Ellie's voice. She sighs then nods, she already has enough and it's just beginning of the day. 

"And the good news?" Clem asks, she hopes it'll be good. 

"About two hours ago we found Louis and James making out. And nothing else really happened." Dina answers with a smirk and Clem pinches the bridge of her nose, she expected something more important. 

"Well, better than nothing, I'll go to talk with Minnie, and if I won't fall asleep I'll talk with those people Elliot brought." Clementine tells them and starts to walk away. 

Christa and Omid start to walk next to her but she kind of ignores them, she's sure they want to tell her something but she's far more focused on getting to dorms right now. "Are you getting paid to fight Delta off?" Christa finally says something which makes Clem look at her, Christa probably thinks she does get paid since brunette said she's a mercenary, she shakes her head a little if they tried to give her some sort of payment she'd refuse it. 

"Even if they'd be paying me I wouldn't get paid enough." Clem replies with a smirk. 

"Agreed, you have too much to deal with." Omid adds. 

"As much as I want to talk I need to speak with Minnie." She gets inside the dorms not waiting for a reply from both Christa and Omid, she walks as fast as she can without running quickly heading towards hers and Minnie's room, Sophie wasn't really living there anymore, she was spending all night at Brody's room by now, she only gets clothes from her old room. Not even waiting for a second Clem opens the door and she immediately sees Minnie lying on the bad, hands under her head. 

"Is what Gabe says true?" Minnie asks, her voice is emotionless, Clem starts to wonder what the hell Gabe had to say that Minerva won't even spare a glance at the brunette. 

"I don't know what he said to you, but I know that what I heard is bullshit." Clementine answers, she doesn't know what Gabe said to Minnie but she's pretty sure it's bullshit too. Brunette got closer to the bed, but didn't sit or lay down, she couldn't since she felt like she could fall asleep any second. 

"About an hour ago he approached me and told me that you're cheating on me with him, that you're using me and the rest of school to get New Frontier's attention so they'll give you place in their city, that you'll leave me without a word right after fight with Delta. It hurts like hell even if I'm aware he's lying, but then he said that you also want to break up with me since he convinced you that the relationship between two women is disgusting, generally between the same gender." Minnie tells her and now Clem gives in and lies down next to her to give her some sort of comfort while also trying to stop thinking about what she should tell and do to Gabe for that. 

"I'm many things, a killer, a thief when needed, and many other things, but I never was a cheater, and I agree, the beginning of our relationship was a little forced from my side, blame Ellie since she told me how good it will work on me if I have someone, but the longer I was with you the more I understood what it meant to love someone and to be loved. I won't fuck it up just so I could get the attention of a group I tried to avoid for about three years by now, but I had to stop since without them we're all dead." Clementine whispers, she lays on her side and looks at Minerva which still looks in front of her. 

"I feel fucking stupid for even thinking he's not lying." Minnie blames herself, Clem shakes her head even if redhead can't exactly see it, the brunette would start thinking that if someone told her that Minnie cheats on her a thought that he might be right would cross her mind. 

"Don't be. And he did deserve that punch. I'll talk to him later, you know, he told others that you're using me for god knows what, that you beat me and I'm too afraid you're going to leave me if I'll do anything about it." Clementine tells and Minnie now looks at her with shock on her face. 

"I should hit him harder." Minnie says with a serious look on her face and Clem knows she isn't joking yet it makes her laugh a little. "Do you know why he said all of this?" Minnie asks, Clem is almost sure why. 

"Well, about three or four years back I accidentally saved Javi from New Frontier, it was when bad people were leading them, he offered a car for saving his family, I agreed, as time went on I had to stick with him since the car was ruined by someone and I wanted my car. Many things happened since then to the point where I left, but I was aware that Gabe did like me more than a friend, I didn't, and he's jealous that I like you." Clementine explains and Minnie nods. 

After a quick while of silence Clem wrapped her arms around Minnie and placed her head on taller girl's shoulder then closed her eyes enjoying the warmth radiating from Minnie. "You're not going to sleep are you?" Redhead knows the answer already since she can almost guess that Clem didn't sleep all night, not only her face gives it away but Minnie is sure she did. 

"Yep, didn't sleep for about twenty-four hours, if someone will come by, tell them we'll be out in two hours, something like that." Clem yawns and shifts herself even closer to redhead which pulls her and holds her as tight as she can without hurting brunette. 

"Sure, just leave me laying here to wait for two hours so you can sleep." Minnie says with a smirk, yet Clem doesn't reply, she just hides her head in the crook of redhead's neck, not even a minute pass before she's asleep, and Minnie is holding her close as she's focusing on brunette's slow breathing, still blaming herself for thinking that what Gabe said might be true and wondering what she did to deserve a girl like Clementine.


	42. Chapter 42

Clementine wakes up when she feels something shift on top of her and it's heavy, at least heavier than she is. She opened one of her eyes, the longer someone or whatever is on top of her it's harder for her to breath, she sees that Minnie shifted in her sleep and now lies on top of Clem, her arms wrapped around the brunette. "Minnie wake up, I can't breathe." Clem says in low voice but her mouth isn't that far from Minnie's head so she hopes redhead will wake up. After repeating the same words a couple of times brunette saw Minerva open her eyes slowly and yawn before she realized what Clementine was saying and without any words, she shifted on her back but she took brunette with her and now Clem was laying on Minnie, she can't believe that Minnie doesn't mind it, Clem knows she isn't heavy, saying she's light is saying too much. "I can move if you want to." Brunette offers, she looks at Minnie, and redhead shakes her head. 

"It's fine." 

That was when Clem realized that Minnie fell asleep too and they both don't know how long they have been sleeping. "Shit. We need to go." Clem says and quickly gets up she hears some objections from redhead but brunette ignores them as she quickly puts on her boots and ties them. When she's standing again she sees that Minnie is sitting on the bed and rubs her eyes. "Get ready." Clem hurries, she's already ready to get outside the room, even if she wishes she could sleep just an hour longer, while Minnie didn't even get up from the bed. 

"How are you so quick? I need at least five minutes to wake up." Minnie asks, Clem knows it's usually far longer than five minutes but she doesn't say anything. 

"Years on road will do that to you, now get up." Clem hurries again and Minnie with a whine gets up and puts her boots on too, in the meantime Clem looks outside the window, it's still bright but far less than when she came back so a couple of hours had to pass. "You were supposed to wake me up." Clem reminds, she isn't angry at Minnie, she understands it's not easy to not fall asleep when someone next to you is sleeping you're laying at that moment. 

"I know." Minnie replies as she ties her boots. "I'm sorry." 

"It's my fault. I shouldn't keep you here, but we have to get going, I need to deal with Gabe and whoever Elliot brought." Clementine states, she wants to head towards the doors but she feels that Minnie grabbed her by the wrist and pulled brunette towards herself if Clem wouldn't know that it's Minnie she would get punched right in the face, not because Clem doesn't like the touch, but she's on high alert almost at all times and if someone grabs her without warning she usually punches him or her in the face. Clem was now standing in front of a taller girl, before she could ask what Minnie is doing she felt Minerva's lip brush slightly against her, brunette closed her eyes as she melts into the touch but she knew that Minnie will pull away in a couple of seconds and she wanted the moment to last longer so without thinking she wrapped her arms around Minerva's neck and deepened the kiss, Minnie didn't pull away, didn't even try to, but she was content with Clementine deepening the kiss, she wanted to do the same but she didn't know if the brunette wanted to and she didn't want to risk it. It wasn't long before Clementine pulled away, she wishes she could continue but she still has to take care of her duties. 

"It's not fair." Minnie says when she realizes that Clem pulled back, she thought it will last longer but it didn't. "I hate Delta." It makes Clem chuckle a little, she could actually imagine Minnie hating Delta just because that made all of the duties appear in the first place and that made Clem more and more tense with each day. 

"Come on. I don't promise anything but maybe, just maybe, we will be able to continue this later." Clem says and walks outside the room without waiting and heads towards the exit for Minnie but redhead catches up quickly. 

"Do you know what you'll say to Gabe?" Minnie asks, she learned that when Clem is annoyed, even just slightly, it's best to walk out her way, there are only a few people that can calm her down and Minnie is proud to be in that group of people, Ellie and Dina are there too but they have different ways to calm brunette down, a couple of jokes is usually enough, even if they're bad. 

"Not sure what exactly, but I'll tell him to back the fuck off before he'll regret it. He wanted to destroy something I needed for so long but he also says that Ellie, Dina, Chloe, probably Kate, Violet, Louis, James, and lots of other people are disgusting, I mean, right now I have more respect to Mitch than to him." Clementine explains, she warned him once, it didn't work, she can try just one more time but it might come off to him as more of a threat than a warning, even if she won't do harm to him she has many people she knows, being a mercenary paid off somehow, and without touching him she can make his life a nightmare. Minnie smiles a little when she hears that Clem needs her, she did notice that brunette changed a little since their first meet, Clem started to be far less pissed at everything, sure some of her temper is still there but she has much less of it. "You know what? He played with us, I'll play with him." 

"How?" 

"I'm going to tell him we broke up, take him somewhere where no one can hear us and tell him what I think about him, and right after I approach you, kiss you, and wait for his reaction." Clementine tells her, it might not look like a good plan, it'd be better if Clem had more time to work on it, but looking that Gabe will literally believe everything brunette says it should work. "I'm going to walk out first, you couple minutes later, go to Ellie and tell her, she'll be interested." Clem says before walking out to the courtyard and Minnie as planned stayed inside. 

She quickly looked around and spotted Gabe and saw his eye is swollen and he has a huge bruise on his face, Clem is now sure that Ellie is doing a good job with training, she quickly goes to him and he spots her and fear is seeable on his face but Clem smiles, a fake smile. "I and Minnie broke up." She lies straight in his face, she's really good at lying, only Ellie sometimes see through her lies, depends how motivated she is. A smile appears on his face, a wide, proud one, and it takes whole energy in Clementine's body to not hit him right now. "But I want to talk to you... In private." Clem tries to say as seductive as she can but it's even worse than her jokes, but Gabe doesn't seem to mind and he practically drags her into admin building. 

"So what do you want to talk about?" He asks the smile isn't disappearing from his face, but as far as Clem knows they're alone so her facial expression changes and she doesn't hind she's disgusted and Gabe notices that too but before he can ask what is it about Clem talks first. 

"You disgust me, you tried to ruin something I needed for so long, you don't even know how that felt, being all alone most of the time, the only people I spoke to was Ellie or whoever was paying me to complete a job for them, I felt so miserable and Minnie helped me fix that, for once I felt like I had a purpose and you try to destroy it, and even more, most of the people that I would die for you call disgusting, what? Because a girl has a girlfriend? Because a boy has a boyfriend? IT DOESN'T MATTER. Do you know who's disgusting? YOU ARE. And if you can't accept this fact then get the fuck back to Richmond, and try something like that one more time and I'll make your life a walking nightmare." She warns him as she promised and before she walked out the admin building she saw a hint of hurt on his face, but she doesn't care, she leaves and immediately heads towards a table where Ellie, Dina, and Minnie sit at, she greets a couple of people on her way there. 

"How it went?" Dina asks with an excited voice, Clem doesn't say anything but looks over her shoulder to see when Gabe walks out. Not an entire minute pass and they see that Gabe walked out and is looking at them so Clem, as planned, kisses Minnie and as she pulls away she hears steps behind her and looks on both Ellie's and Dina's face makes Clem sure it's Gabe. 

"You told me you two broke up." He reminds her with an annoying, Clem at least has enough of it, voice and she turns to him with a smirk but Dina is first to talk. 

"She lied, just like you did, now go fuck yourself since no one will help you with it." Dina says to him with venom in her voice, it's not usual to see her like that and when she says something to someone in that tone it was usually of her protectiveness over her friends or girlfriend. Gabe glares at her before complying, Clem turns back and fist bumps Dina. 

"To answer your question, it went better than expected." Clem tells them exactly what she said and Ellie laughs not being able he believed that brunette and Minnie broke up. 

"I'm sorry, but you have to be fuckin' blind and deaf to believe that, I mean, who's that stupid to believe that?" Ellie asks in between her laughs. 

"Gabe is." Minnie answers with a confident smirk, Clem smiles a little too, at least he got what was coming to him. 

"Okay... Okay..." Ellie says and tries to calm herself down, after she does so she speaks again. "We were thinking of a way to bring the panels up the roof of dorms since the old panels are there, and we came up with connecting some ladders and climbing with those panels that way-" 

"Fuck no." Clem cuts Ellie off, she still remembers how furious she was when she tried to do it with Chloe, she doesn't remember the last time she cursed so much. "Is there any other option?" 

"Clearing third floor I suppose?" Minnie asks, she knows the layout of both dorms and admin building and knows that it's possible to get on the roof through the building, Ellie nods at Minnie's words. 

"Yep. But from what Sophie said to me there are more of them than in both the first and second floor, so it won't be easy either." Ellie states, but Clem will choose to risk her life by fighting the infected once than risking someone's life six times while climbing the ladder. 

"I'll take care of it tomorrow, I have no energy for fighting today, so I guess that I have to deal with our prisoners now?" Clem asks she knows the answer, she risked with letting James stay he was only one, but now there's three of them and one of them tried to attack Clementine's people, she won't let them stay but she isn't sure if she can let them leave either since they can work for Delta, she can't take that risk. "Okay, I'll get going then, is there anyone with them?" Clementine asks before standing up and waiting for an answer. 

"Kenny and Joel, I sent Joel there to prevent Kenny from killing them, it looks like he knows them." Ellie answers her question, Clem starts to wonder who it is, maybe someone she also knows or maybe someone who tried doing something to Kenny after that bandit camp, she's really curious now so she immediately heads to the doors leading to the cellar from the courtyard. She slowly gets down the stairs, her footsteps echoing throughout the cellar, she sees pissed Kenny and much calmer Joel but what catches Clem's attention is a gun in Joel's holster, probably a precaution, behind them she sees three figures all on their knees, but in comparison to Kenny and Joel she doesn't see their faces but as she gets closer she sees three faces that she immediately recognizes. 

"You've got to be kidding me."


	43. Chapter 43

Clementine recognized the three in front of her, but because of the way the light was shining they couldn't see her. All of the hate for those people came back with full force if there was someone she didn't expect to see here it was them. Arvo, Bonnie, and Mike. "Joel, give me your gun." She doesn't look at him when she says that, she can see the fear on faces of people kneeling in front of her and also hear Arvo's cursing in Russian. 

"So you know 'em too?" He asks as he hands her the pistol, Kenny is glaring at the three all the time, he doesn't say anything nor does anything, which is surprising since Clem was sure that at least Arvo won't come out alive if he'd ever stumble into Kenny again. Clementine doesn't answer, she checks how many bullets Joel has loaded, the magazine is full and she points it at Arvo's head without any hesitation. 

"Who the hell are you and what did we do to you?!" Mike asks with both fear and anger in his voice. While still aiming at the Arvo she looks at him with an emotionless expression, she knows they can't see her but she doesn't care. 

"I thought you might remember the girl Arvo shot a couple of years ago." Clementine says to him and hears him saying 'of fuck'. She looks back at Arvo. 

"Clementine, don't, don't do it, we'll do everything, just don't kill us." Bonnie begs, Clementine doesn't flinch at her begs, she wonders if she should pull the trigger or not. She could let them go but the risk of them being in a huge group or any group at all is too big, so shooting them is an option, but neither Mike or Bonnie really did anything to brunette, sure, she hates them for helping Arvo but they didn't know it's going to end like this. 

"Is you'll kill me, my group will come after you! A huge group, thirty people, all well equipped and trained, let us out and we will forget about this." Arvo threatens her, he probably doesn't even know that Clem has even more people under her command as well that he makes a really huge mistake by threatening her. 

"Don't listen to him!" Both Bonnie and Mike shout in a union, Arvo is glaring at Clementine. "He's lying." Mike continues. 

"Where are your friends?" Clem demands an answer. After Arvo didn't answer Clem cocked the hammer and pulled the slide then placed the barrel of the gun right in the middle of Arvo's forehead. "I won't ask twice." Her voice is determined and she can see Arvo's face twitch a little. 

"Thirty kilometers from here, in a small town." He answers and Clementine laughs, it can't be a coincidence but there were eleven people not thirty and another thing that stands out is that she remembers that bandits were talking about three people stealing from them, one of them being a blond with a splint on his leg and Arvo has that splint. 

"What a coincidence. I just came back from a town that's thirty kilometers from here too and they were saying someone was stealing and their description matches with you. And if you actually were with them then you three are the last ones from that group." Clementine tells him and his face now shows even more fear, she puts a little pressure on the trigger but not enough for the gun to fire. After thinking for a short while Clementine puts the gun away thinking that Arvo might be lying where his group is. She heads to Joel and Kenny. Kenny is visibly not content with what happened. "Joel, go and take the blond to some empty room in the dorms and try and find out if he lied about where his group is, I'll join you later." She whispers to him and in the same time giving him his gun back. Joel nods and after hiding his gun he grabs Arvo by the neck with force and takes him outside the cellar. 

"Kenny, go and change with Jade, she'll keep an eye on them." She tells him, he shakes his head and says he prefers to do it himself. "Kenny, just do it, you deserve a break, and Jade will handle it. And this that I didn't do anything to Arvo now doesn't mean I won't do it later." She says, she doubts herself she'll do something to him, not kill him, she's sure of that. Kenny nods and walks outside with her. Right after they got out Ellie and Minnie were waiting for them and Clem told them what she knows also telling them what Arvo did. 

"He's the first person that ever shot you?" Minnie asks for confirmation and Clem nods. Clem looks around if Kenny is around, she doesn't want him to hear what she'll say right now. 

"And imagine that I even tried helping them, by saying that I won't tell anything if they'll leave half of the food they took and Arvo shot me." Clem tells Minnie and Ellie, she isn't even sure why she tried helping them, she's sure she won't offer something like that to anyone again. 

"I'm surprised he's still alive." Ellie mutters out, Clem never had mercy for anyone that ever tried doing something to her. 

"I don't know what I'll do after I find out if he's telling the truth or not, he did shot and rob me so yeah..." She talked with Ellie about preparations for clearing the third floor of dorms tomorrow before heading to the room to which Joel was going with Arvo, now she regrets she didn't ask him which room will he take him to but fortunately Kate saw him and pointed the room in which they are in. Minnie went with Clem too, brunette tried to convince Minnie to don't but she was told her she wants to make sure brunette won't kill Arvo before he gets what she needs out of him. 

Not even five minutes passed before Clementine was sure she won't get anything out of Arvo, he was threatening her, Joel, and Minnie. When she threatened Minnie some rage started to burn inside but what made her snap was the look he gave Minerva, she know that look all to well and she knew what he was thinking, she remembers the look from back when she was in Prescott the only time she was inside the bar there after 'accident' she had there not long after meeting Javi. She saw a man looking at some young girl the same way the next thing she found out was that he tried to rape her and if not for someone that surprisingly wasn't drunk he would have succeeded, so when she saw the same exact look in Arvo's eyes and that he was looking at Minerva she hit him a couple of times in the face, hard, Joel had to pull her away to stop her from killing the bastard. "Stop!" Joel says to her, she struggles against his grip but he's far more strong than she is and Minnie just looks at what's happening as she didn't even have the chance to react. 

Joel dragged Clementine out of the room, he saw Arvo's look too but didn't care, he told her that he'll handle it and that she and Minnie can go, she nodded as she was sure she might kill him the moment she'll see him again. Joel went back inside the room and Minnie left not long after, she asked Clementine why she started to beat Arvo, she didn't tell her, she can't even stand the thought that something like that might happen to Minnie. Brunette is sure that she'll kill anyone that will even try to do that, anyone and she's also sure that she won't let that happen. "I'll tell you after I will calm down okay? I can't talk about it, not now." 

When they were out in the courtyard again they sat down at the table where Dina, Kate, and Chloe were sitting at, Clem listened to them talk, well pretended to, she still tried to calm herself after what Arvo was thinking. "Ellie went to ask some questions the two in the cellar." Dina informed her, she nodded. Ellie was back a couple of minutes after and Clementine was right, Bonnie, Mike, and Arvo tried to steal supplies from the bandits but they were noticed and had to run they also said they aren't a part of any group, Clementine listened to Ellie carefully and after Ellie told her everything she didn't know what to think, the safest option was to kill them and she's pretty sure that's how Arvo will end but she doesn't know what to do about Bonnie and Mike, Ellie mentioned that they had blindfolds on so they don't know where they are and they could blindfold them again and drop them off somewhere in the woods. 

"I'll decide tomorrow, I just need to wait what Joel will tell." Clementine says, Ellie nods and starts to talk with the rest of the people sitting at the table, brunette still wasn't talking as she was waiting for Joel to come back. 

It was good ten minutes before Joel was back. They both walked away from the table to talk, actually, Joel didn't want to talk around others. "And?" Clementine asks. 

"Not sure, he didn't tell anything about the group but was threatening all of us, told that he and his friend will kill all children and men and rape women and as he put it 'he'll take care of the redhead himself'." Clementine's blood boiled when he told her that, at least she's sure she knew what his look meant and she didn't just imagine it. 

"Bonnie and Mike told that they aren't in any group, and honestly? I kinda believe them. They didn't look like they're lying and I'm pretty sure Arvo threatens us just so we'll let him go." Clem tells him and he shrugs, she can see that he doesn't know who lies and who doesn't. "I have to get some sleep before deciding. But I'm almost sure Arvo won't come out of here alive." 

"I figured that much." Joel says before walking away, it's late and most people has free time now, only works on reinforcing the school are still going and there isn't that much to do, what Clementine wants to do is make the barbed wire on the walls electrified, then they'll be sure no one will come through the walls. Clementine got back to the table she was sitting at and clenched her fist under the table to not show her anger. 

"What did he say you?" Ellie asks, she then explains that Minnie told her what happened. Brunette feels the curious looks on her from anyone at the table, she looks at Ellie before answering 

"You remember what that man you beat to death said when we first got here? When he said what happened to some girl whose name started with 'D'?" Clementine asks and after a couple of seconds, the realization hits Ellie and Dina. 

"Oh..." Ellie mutters out. 

"Yeah." Brunette retorts. "Don't tell them." 

"If you don't want me to." Ellie promises, Clementine will tell Minnie, but later, she still has to calm down, what she'd give for any broken car just to work on it, it relaxed her last time and believes it will relax her now too. 

The rest of the day went by quickly, Clementine mostly wandered around the school asking if anyone needs any help, she talked with a couple of people, mostly Christa and Omid, then it Brody with Sophie's help, Brody still isn't letting Sophie do anything with her arm, made dinner and after the dinner everyone went to their rooms to sleep apart from Javi that had watch that night.


	44. Chapter 44

Clementine was already getting ready for the next day, she has to make a call if they let Bonnie, Mike, and Arvo go or will they kill them. Minnie is still sleeping Clementine told her about Arvo when they got to their room her face scrunched in disgust and the redhead asked Clementine what she wanted to do with him and brunette didn't tell her that she plans to kill him, at least that's what she thinks of doing to him now and even if she will let him leave Clementine is sure Kenny will hunt him down and won't let him die quickly, and the same thing would happen to Bonnie and Mike if she lets him leave and from her, he'll get quick death at least. After Clementine was done with getting ready she sat back on the bed and looked at still sleeping redhead. Smiling lightly brunette caressed Minerva's cheek her face twitched a little at the contact. "Wake up Minnie. We need to go." Clementine says as she shakes her girlfriend lightly. It was unusual to see Minnie actually open one of her eyes and smile slightly before closing it again. 

"It's still early, no one's probably up. Ten more minutes." Minnie breathes out before trying to sleep again. 

"I start to wonder, who's more childish, you or Chloe." Clementine smiles as she sees Minnie open her eye once again to glare at her in a joking manner. 

"Really? You didn't have to throw me out of the bed." Minnie retorts. 

"True. I didn't... Yet." Clementine challenges and since Minnie is sure that brunette isn't kidding she sits up with a groan and then places her head on Clementine's trying to maybe get some more sleep. 

"Come on. I need to do a couple of things that need some preparations." Clementine explains and stands up, Minnie groans again while Clementine drags her up. When Minnie was standing Clementine leaned up and pressed a quick kiss on redhead's lips. For Minnie, it wasn't enough she quickly leaned down, her arms wrapping around Clementine's torso, for yet another, longer kiss but before it could get any further Clementine gently pulled away but let Minnie's arms be where they are as she pulled her arms around taller girl's neck. "We really need to go." Clementine urges, Minnie groans but Clementine smirks a little. "But maybe we'll be able to continue it a little later." Minnie's eyes lit up a little, they spend a lot of time together but it's rare for them to do something more than just a peck on the lips and when they are alone both of them are too tired to do anything else than sleeping. 

They walked outside their room after Minnie put her boots on. Clementine welcomed a couple of people that woke up too. "You think Chloe woke up?" Minnie asks and Clementine shrugs, she doubts that but who knows, maybe. After they saw Ellie Clementine talked to her about clearing the third floor of infected, they want to do that after Clementine will deal with Bonnie, Mike, and Arvo, Ellie is supposed to pick another three people to help them. When Clementine walked outside the dorms she said goodbye to Minnie as she was supposed to check for any weak points in walls and look for barbed wire in the glasshouse but Clem plans to help with the second thing. When brunette spotted Joel she approached him, she wants to hear his opinion about the choice she'll have to make. "Hey." She welcomes. 

"Hey." He responds. She stands next to him before saying anything. 

"So, I need to do something about Arvo and the rest and since you helped me with it, I want to know your opinion on this." Clementine wonders if Joel will actually help or if he'll just say she has to deal with it alone, but to her surprise, he responds to her question. 

"We don't know if they have a group or not, but that two in the basement didn't look like they were lying, but that asshole you nearly killed, oh boy, we need to do something about him. He threatened us." Joel says and Clementine nods trying to think what she's supposed to do. 

"Get ready, blindfold them, we take them out of here, far from here so they can't track us down. I'll get Kenny." She tells him and he slowly nods before walking away. Clementine looks around to find Kenny, he talks with Elliot and Jack. She got close and heard them talk about clearing out the third floor of infected and that Ellie told them they're going. "Kenny." She calls out and he turns around after saying they'll talk about it later. 

"Yeah?" 

"I'm going with Arvo, Bonnie, and Mike. Wanna go too?" She asks and he nods. Both of them start to head to the basement and hear Mike asking where they're going and Joel is silent as he blindfolds Arvo last, she sees anger starting to rise again on Kenny's face and she doesn't want to do anything to them so she thinks quickly about what to do so he won't. "Kenny, go get weapons, I don't want kids to see." She whispers to him, Kenny nods slightly before getting outside the cellar. She gets closer to Joel, he keeps a close look at the three making sure they won't try anything. "We're going outside the school, I don't know what to do about you but if it ends up in any of you dead, I don't want kids to see that." She sees some fear roll over their face. 

A couple of minutes later they were out of the cellar and getting outside the school, Kenny gave Clementine her pistol as he and Joel had some hunting rifle Clementine didn't look at what they brought. Clementine plans to get at least ten kilometers from the school but she understands she can't just shoot Arvo in back of his head her pride won't let her do something like that, she wants to give him a chance to survive. 

Joel makes sure any of them won't try to run away while Clementine and Kenny make sure no one or nothing attacks or follows them, if they get attacked by Delta here it might be though to get away even if they'd leave Arvo, Bonnie, and Mike behind. They can hear Arvo mumbling something in Russian and they wonder if Bonnie and Mike understand him they were around him for a couple of years so maybe he taught them some of the Russian and they're making a plan how to attack Clementine, Joel, and Kenny and they won't even know about it. "Keep a closer look at them. They might be planning something." She tells Joel he slightly nods and now has a tighter grip on his rifle being ready to shot any of them if he needs to. They're about ten kilometers from the school and Clementine orders the group to stop. "Take their blindfolds off." She tells and Joel does it still keeping his rifle in one hand after they can see again they turn to the three and Clem expects them to beg and let them go but before she could even react Arvo charged at her while Mike and Bonnie tried to stop him. Clementine quickly started to hit back she told Joel and Kenny to not do anything as they aimed at Bonnie and Mike. The more hits she sent in man's direction the more her knuckles started to hurt but she didn't care she just kept on hitting and neither Joel or Kenny didn't stop her. When she stopped whole Arvo's face was covered in bruises and you could hear him whimper in pain but he was still alive. "You knew about it?" She asks in anger and they both lower they head before nodding, she huffs, pulls out her pistol and shoots Arvo in the head, she doesn't even feel bad because he fought and lost, Mike took a sudden step in Clementine's direction and she now was aiming at him and he then took a slow step back. "I'm asking once again, and you answer honestly or you'll end up like him, do you have a group?" She asks again. 

"We don't, how many times we have to say it? And why did you kill him?" Bonnie asks and Clementine looks at her trying to judge if she's lying or not but after a minute she hides her weapon and tells Kenny and Joel to do the same, Joel does that immediately while Kenny is reluctant. 

"That fuck promised he'll rape the girl I love and that his 'friends' will do the same to every woman in there, threatened my friends, my sister, and kids I'm protecting, I won't let anyone threaten people I protect. If you'll try to take revenge you'll suffer more than Arvo, far more." She threatens before walking away, Kenny and Joel following. They went in another direction at first so they can make sure if Mike and Bonnie are following them or not. Clementine looks at her hands that are whole in Arvo's blood, skin on her knuckles torn off, she'll need to get them cleaned when she gets back. 

"Do you they'll get back?" Kenny asks probably wanting to go after them, Clementine shrugs, she can't be sure of it right now but looking that she killed Arvo on their eyes and they probably know they shouldn't mess with her they probably won't. 

"If they get back after Delta attacks I'll fucking hunt them down." Clementine promises and Kenny nods. It took them a couple of hours to get back to school, it wasn't long after noon when they got back, Minnie saw the state Clementine's hands are in and went for something to clean them while Clementine and Joel handed her gun to Kenny so he can carry it back. Minnie was back a couple of minutes later with bandages and bottle of alcohol, Clementine groaned when she saw that, they had to clean her wounds not that long ago and now they have to do it again because she couldn't stop herself, the both sat at an empty table. 

Clementine winced when Minnie started to clear her knuckles but she was familiar with the feeling by now and it didn't sting as much as it used to. "Judging by how your fists look, I can guess what happened to them." Minnie says under her nose so only Clementine can hear her. 

"Only Arvo's dead. And he attacked me, not my fault." Clementine says back and Minnie nods. Clementine focuses on how soft Minnie's hand is against hers, she never noticed it because she never focused on it, her mind always wandered to other places but since Clem started to spend more and more time with Minerva she noticed that it feels differently whenever she's around her, a kind of warmth she didn't feel before, another type of warmth whenever Minnie says she loves her. She started wondering how Minerva looks without clothes it happened for the first time was when Clem was training with Jade while Minnie was training with Joel and she had just a thin blouse on her and sweat made the blouse reveal to Clementine that Minerva's curves are slightly bigger than baggy clothes let her see but she quickly stopped thinking about it when Jade's fist missed Clementine's face by millimeters after that. 

"What do you mean attacked? Everyone who tries usually ends dead, why he thought it will end differently for him?" Minnie asks and Clementine doesn't know, maybe he still thought that she's that little girl when they first met that won't hurt anyone unless she has to. 

"He met me when I was eleven? Maybe twelve, not sure. He had some pills that we needed because there was a woman giving birth... I let him keep it, the woman didn't survive, she died a couple of days later when Arvo's group attacked us, I had to catch her child before it falls, I moved to quickly and they started shooting, a little later him and two others people from our group took our supplies and shot me, I could've shot them and stopped it from happening but I wanted to give them only half of the supplies, we needed it, we had a newborn so I couldn't just let them take it. Arvo shot me." Clementine explains trying not to think too much about it so she won't break, she can't do it, not here. Minnie slowly nodded when she applied bandage on brunette's second hand. 

"Was that newborn AJ?" Minnie asks without thinking about it and she saw the hurt showing on Clementine's face. "I'm sorry..." She quickly apologized and Clementine shook her head to stop her from it. 

"Don't apologize. But yes, that newborn was AJ." She confirms trying to stop her voice from cracking. Minnie still has an apologetic look on her face but Clementine smiled even if it was fake just trying to stop Minnie from worrying about her. "You were in that glasshouse yet?" She asks trying to change the subject, Minnie shakes her head. "Then get ready, I'll help you." 

"Okay. Mitch and Ruby are coming too." Redhead informs while getting up with brunette, Clementine nods slightly. She doesn't know why they're coming with them but she doesn't say anything. Mitch and Ruby joined them when they saw that Minnie and Clem are heading where the glasshouse is, Mitch asked about bandages on her hands, brunette didn't reply. When they got inside Clementine moved the shelf with Mitch because doors are leading to a science lab, at least that's what Mitch said. Clementine walked inside first and something grabbed and pulled her arm towards itself, at the same time she heard all too familiar clicking. From the instinct she connected her fist with clicker's head, the whole arm of clicker was only holding itself on a couple of muscles and skin so when Clementine pulled her arm towards herself clicker's arm had fallen off. "Fuck, gross!" She screams as she shakes its arm off, others walked in too quickly when they heard Clementine fighting. 

"You're alright?" Minnie asks as Clementine tries to calm her breathing, brunette nods lightly. 

"Oh no." They hear Ruby breath out, Clementine looks at the clicker that just nearly bit her and wonders if they knew who it was, she looks like she has some sort of nurse's clothes. 

"Who it was?" Clementine asks while Ruby looks at the infected. 

"Ms. Martin, she stayed while the others left." Ruby explains and Clementine is curious how this building worked, from what she can understand some adults used to take care of them but they left apart from the nurse. One day, we came out looking for food. Runners attacked us. Thought we could fight them off, but there were just...there were so many. Ms. Martin told us to run, so we did. She taught me how to patch people up. Stitching, local anesthetics, painkillers, fever reducers. I don't think I can...take care of her. Would you? I'm sorry." Ruby walks off while sobbing, Clementine looks for her knife, she rarely lefts it, the only time she doesn't have it on her is when she started to sleep in one bed with Minnie. She takes it out and stabs the clicker in the head and twists the knife, when the clicking stopped she could hear one louder sob from Ruby, she feels sorry for the shorter girl. 

"I'm sorry." Clementine mumbles out when she hides her knife back. 

"I saw fertilizer earlier if we could find propane and something to create a spark..." Mitch wanders off and Clementine knows what he thinks, he wants to do bombs, she knew a couple of people that did them in Prescott, they actually were the people she took explosives from. 

"You know how to make bombs?" Clementine asks. 

"That's why he was sent here, for blowing shit up." Ruby says, Clementine is lost how this building worked but knew what she had to look for while Minnie and Ruby didn't, but they were helping too. Clementine first went to Minnie to ask about how the school worked, brunette thinks they probably were in a group that lived here and when it got tough adults ran away leaving kids behind. 

Clementine got closer to the tall redhead that looked at some herbs, Ruby mentioned that they could use in the stew saying it'll boost morale if the same stew will taste differently. "Minnie, what was this building? How you all got here?" Clementine asks Minnie, she doesn't answer right away. 

"How about this. After everyone from the school, you, Ellie, and Dina will be done with our work maybe we could meet in the music room, you could learn more about us, and we'll be able to learn more about you and Ellie and I'll answer that question then." Minnie offers and Clementine likes that idea, she barely knows anything about anyone from Sophie's group. 

"Sure." Clementine agrees before walking away to look for propane and igniter. "Mitch!" She calls out to him and he approaches her and his eyes lit up at the igniter. 

"Great, this is an igniter-" Before he can continue Clementine cuts him off. 

"I know what this is." She tells him and he looks questioningly at her for a second before showing a grin on his face and walking off again. Clementine finds a propane tank not long after and picks it up, Mitch looked surprised she picked it up as well as Minnie, Ruby didn't pay attention she was still looking at Ms. Martin. "Take it." She says while handing Mitch propane tank. 

"We have everything we need, we can go." Mitch announces and starts to head towards the exit. 

Before Mitch could walk away Ruby spoke up. "We need to bury Ms. Martin." Minnie agrees with Ruby while Mitch says they should burn her. 

"Minnie, go get the shovel. I'll help you bury her." Clementine says to Ruby. 

"Thank you so much." Clementine smiles lightly at Ruby's words while Minnie goes to take a shovel while Mitch groaned rather loudly and walked away. Clementine dragged the body outside with Ruby and waited for Minnie to come back. "You do care about us." Clementine can hear Ruby mumble out, she looks at her with a questioning look, maybe brunette doesn't show it but she does care about the people from the school she doesn't blame them for throwing her out after Marlon, sure, Mitch was taking it too far but she sort of forgave him. 

"I do. If I wouldn't I'd take you to the shithole I was living in or left you to fight with Delta on your own." Clementine tells her, she can't see any of them handling themselves in Prescott. And after Delta started the war with New Frontier it got even worse. 

"It was THAT bad?" Ruby asks and Clementine thinks how she should say that she had to torture a leader of bandits once just to get some food. 

"Since I moved there I caused more evil than good, just for some food or ammunition." Clementine explains. "Minnie said that after everyone's done with their work everyone from school, me, Ellie, and Dina will meet up in the music room so we could get to know all of you more and that you could get to know us more." 

"That's an good idea." Ruby says, Clementine nods and a couple of minutes later Minnie's back with a shovel. Clementine takes despite Minnie's protests saying that if she'll get tired they'll change. 

Clementine dug out most of the grave and Minnie just the end of it she didn't even get tired while Clementine was panting for air. "I told you to change earlier." Minnie tells while helping Ruby to get Ms. Martin's corpse inside the grave, Ruby started to bury the dead nurse. 

"That just means I got out of shape." Clementine jokes and Minnie rolls her eyes. They get back to the courtyard, now Minnie's supposed to train with Joel while Clementine has to train Jade, Chloe, Louis, and Sophie. Jade and Chloe got far better and both of them managed to land a hit on Clementine, Louis is still struggling but he gets closer and closer while Chloe is almost hopeless and Clem trains with her a little longer than with others and because she was the last one, they were the last to end training. "Chloe, don't get me wrong, but you're shit at this." Brunette says and Chloe glares at her. 

"I know." Clementine didn't expect that answer but at least Chloe knows she can't fight very well and brunette doesn't know if she will have enough time to train her to do a little better she plans on training a little less with Jade and the rest and put more time with Chloe. Ellie approached Clementine with a bottle of water when she saw the brunette was done, Clementine started to drink it. 

"When we're clearing that floor?" Ellie asks while Clementine is still drinking. 

"We find Kenny, Jack, and Elliot, get weapons and we can go." Clementine answers while putting the cap back on the bottle. Ellie nods and they head towards the table where the three they look for is sitting at telling them it's time, they head towards nurse office where they had putten all of the supplies along with weapons. When Clementine took her pistol she looked at what they got at that town and saw that under some pills there is something metal, brunette wondering what it is she picks up one bottle of painkillers and sees a pendant with a small red and white fox, knowing that no one would from the school would put it under all the meds she puts it in her pocket and gets back to where the guns are and pick up an Ithaca 37. When they were heading towards the dorms she saw Brody and Sophie heading to admin building probably to the music room, Clem stopped them. "Get people out of the dorms." She quickly tells and catches up to the rest of her team that's supposed to clear out the third floor of dorms. 

Ellie and Elliot moved aside everything that blocked their way to the third floor, Clementine was the first to climb up the stairs while aiming up them in case she has to shot any infected but the stairs are clear, but she can hear clickers, at least three of them. She gestures others to follow her. Brunette looked down the corridor and saw three clickers, she thought how they can take them down while not alerting others. Clementine gets just a little closer, she aims at the head of one of the clickers, she looks behind at Ellie, Ellie nods and aims at the other one, while Kenny aims at the third one, Elliot and Jack try and cover doors in the corridor making sure infected won't attack Clementine, Ellie, and Kenny. When Clementine pulls the trigger clicker's head is torn apart by buckshot, she hears Kenny and Ellie shooting right after her killing their targets too. Just when infected bodies dropped on the floor another infected started to hit the doors from inside the rooms, Clementine and Ellie aimed at one of them, Kenny was aiming at second one alone, Elliot and Jack aimed at last one. First doors to give in was Clementine's and Ellie's, there were only two runners on the other side that died in not even five seconds, Ellie went to support Elliot and Jack while Clementine went to help Kenny. Clementine heard another door to give in and a couple of shots, then rapid footsteps getting close to them, she looked to her left and saw that Elliot and the rest took care of their room and now are helping Clementine and Kenny. 

When final door gave in there were many clickers behind them, one of them rushed at Clementine but she managed to shot him before it could get close enough. She heard another couple of shots around her but there was another clicker that lunged itself at Jack pinning him to the ground, brunette heard him scream and curse while trying to get infected off of him but before he could do that she kicked it making it fall off him and then shot him in the head. Clementine helped Jack up, all of the infected were dead and Clementine breathed out in relief. "Everone's okay?" She asks and they all just nod while trying to catch a breath. 

"This could have gotten smoother." Elliot sighs and Clementine shrugs, in her opinion every fight with infected that didn't end up in getting bit is smooth. 

"Well, at least we'll have electricity soon if it'll go well." Clementine tries to cheer him up, he somewhat smiles. They all head outside on the courtyard to put the guns back, when they get outside they can see a couple of worried faces. Minnie rushes over to Clementine and checks for any wounds, brunette would be surprised if not for that she came with ruined knuckles a couple of hours back. "I'm fine, there were a little more clickers than we anticipated." Brunette calms down and redhead doesn't seem too convinced. 

"People got worried that something happened when all the shooting happened." Minnie explains as she backs away a little. Clementine smiles, even though she has a little bit of blood on herself it's not hers but from some infected. 

"Well, it was this or risking to take them out with a knife." Clementine says and Minnie nods at her explanation. "People are in the music room already?" Minnie nods again. "I'll put my stuff away and I'll join you." Clementine walks away with Ellie back to the nurse's office and put their stuff away, Clementine took a last look around her and there's far more than she even knew they got and she even managed to get another car plus six solar panels from all the runs she ever did, this is the best one. When Clementine walked out the admin building Javi approached her with an apologetic look on his face. 

"Clementine, about what Gabe did last day..." He never calls her by full name so she knows it's serious. "I'm sorry, but he can't stay here because a couple of people already asked me to take him back to Richmond, I won't do anything if you won't let me but I think this is a good idea too. I'll talk to Kate maybe she'll be able to knock some sense in his head." Javi says. 

"Firstly, don't apologize, he should take responsibility for his choices. Secondly, yes, I knew people would want him far from here but if Delta attacks I'll be short on two people. I can handle him until Delta attacks and then he can go unless there's something you could do that would make it worth it." Clementine says to him, he firstly nods then starts to wonder if there's anything he could do for the school that would pay off in the end. 

"Well, I got connections to people that restored water in Richmond, maybe they'll be able to do the same here? Taking a shower, even a cold one, will boost morale." Javi offers. Clementine thinks for a second about it, if the water thing will work out, she knows her ways around many things, she learned them all when she couldn't take another job or there weren't any, but she doesn't know if it could even work. 

After thinking for good ten minutes Clementine finally agreed, Gabe isn't good at fighting, he's even worse than Chloe is, and he wouldn't be any addition to the fight, not really. "Okay, I should be back in two or three days." Javi says and walks off, probably to find Gabe. 

Clementine starts to head towards the music room, she wonders how it will end and the only thing she wants to find out is how Sophie's group got here in the first place.


	45. Chapter 45

Brunette headed to the admin building with a calm expression, she wondered how it will look she honestly thinks that it's just going to be asking questions and trying to be as honest as possible. When she got inside she saw Louis shuffle cards and she knew that it's going to involve some card game, Ellie and Dina were already there too as well as everybody from Sophie's group even Tenn. Brunette sat next to her girlfriend and waited for Louis to explain how it's going to look. "Highest card wins and the winner gets to ask Clementine a question." Louis explains and Clementine looks at him not exactly understanding what happens if she wins. 

"And if I win?" 

"You get to ask us a question." Without any further questions, Louis started to pass around the cards. As brunette looked at her card she saw a two and immediately frowned, she looked around seeing that Mitch has won and she doesn't know if she will like his question or not. 

Brunette sees a little smirk forming on Mitch's lips and she's almost sure she won't like the question. "Back when we saved you from the bandits. If you'd have to leave someone behind, who would it be?" She glares at him so lightly he can't see it, or maybe he doesn't want to see it, she's not sure. 

"I'd stay myself, I was wounded in the leg so I'd slow you down, but then y'all would be fucked since everyone I brought are following me, not any of you." Clementine answers his question and he spots in corner of her eyes Tenn looking at her like he didn't like her answer. Minerva saw the slight confusion on brunette's face when she glanced at Tenn so she hurried to explain. 

"He doesn't like when people swear." Clementine nods understanding the situation reminding herself when she was eight and hated when others swore too. As the cards were passed around once more Clementine saw a confident smirk on Dina's face making an uneasy feeling in her stomach slowly appearing because she knows Dina's a little bit pushy with brunette, and it's Ellie's blame as far as Clementine is aware because of all the stories she told to Dina about her. 

"Well my question is about when you were captured too, did you really need us? Or you had the way out figured out and we walked without the need to?" Not the worst question Dina could think of in Clementine's opinion. Brunette had a way out all figured out but the others appeared when she wanted to start with her plan. 

"Not... Really. I wasn't sure if my plan was going to work out but I had five minutes every time when they changed watch over me I only had one of them on me, I was going to break the chair on him, kill him, get a gun, and run." 

"It sounds simple." Mitch comments. 

"Go on, break a sturdy, wooden chair on someone after getting stabbed and beaten." She challenges and he just scoffs. As they all showed their cards after another passing them around she saw that Sophie has won. 

Red-hair wondered on the question for a while before asking. "Is there anyone that you didn't bring here even if they could help?" There is someone from one of her old jobs when she used to work a little outside the Richmond because she had problems with supplies and needed to open up and her little 'fame' of a reliable person helped her. 

"Yep. There was a huge 'mercenary company', as they called themselves, about over a hundred people that are skilled even more than I am." 

"And you didn't bring them because?" Aasim asks and Clementine knew she had to answer that question even if she didn't really want to. 

"Firstly, they're in Los Angeles. Secondly, I don't like this place it brings some grim memories, sure I was friends with some of them, and I was there because their leader wanted to ask if I wanted to join them, you see, I was known as a reliable, hard-working, loyal person. Everyone wants to have someone like that to work for them and I never screwed up a job either so I was 'perfect' in their eyes. The job was to help them to clear out Los Angeles, it was taken by some Hunters and infected in some others parts, back then they were in Chicago in a huge group counting over a thousand people, so they wanted to clear the city out and payment was good so I agreed. We succeeded but not without casualties... Damn, maybe if one girl there didn't die I probably wouldn't be here. In short, too far away I wasn't sure if I'll get back in time." Clementine tells them the whole truth, even Ellie didn't hear that story so she listened carefully knowing that most of the ones she didn't hear are usually the best ones. 

There was a slight silence between them before Minnie broke it. "What do you mean that if someone wouldn't die you wouldn't be here?" She asks with curiosity and some jealousy in her voice but Clementine knows that the girl had a long-time boyfriend. 

"It doesn't matter, she's dead." Clementine mutters out not wanting to talk about that considering she saw that girl die and she was pretty much doing what Minnie was doing now but instead of giving her the love red-head gave her she felt being needed by someone making her keep moving and if that girl would survive and ask Clementine to stay she probably would and it was the first time she thought of her since her death. As she heard people passing the cards around her mind was going through all of the horrors she saw in Los Angeles, back then she thought it was just a good opportunity to get some supplies and right now she regrets she went there in the first place, people she called friends dying all over the city and when she had to stand alone against fifteen people from the same group that killed her friend, it was probably the only reason she won, she wanted revenge, even if it end giving her many scars that won't disappear. She didn't even know when she was clutching her fist. 

"What happened to the person that killed your friend?" She heard Tenn's innocent voice, brunette smiled grimly before looking at the boy. She couldn't tell him what happened, not to him or anyone else in the room. 

"If I told you, you all would be afraid of me. Even Ellie. Let's just say he didn't have the luck to die before I got to him." He didn't die slowly, it was the most painful and longest deaths she ever granted to someone and she doesn't even regret that. 

The silence now was tense and everyone waited for someone to say something to hopefully get the tension lower. "Okay! It took a bad turn really quickly. But we can still fix that. Ask normal questions." Louis commands before passing the cards once more. She felt the worried look on side of her head, when she turned around she saw Minnie looking at her and she tried to reassure her with a fake smile, of course, it didn't work. 

When brunette looked around she saw that Brody won and she had trouble with choosing a question. "I heard you're a mercenary, why did you choose to become one?" 

"I didn't. I had to find someone close to me, but I needed supplies, guns, everything to do so. After I came back it just kinda stuck with me and I didn't care to stop doing it." She answers. The game went on for a couple of other rounds before Clementine won. 

"How did you get to this place?" Clementine asks. 

"This was a boarding school for troubled kids before the outbreak and after it, it was the same, kids from QZs were sent here from different reasons, only Tenn didn't get here because he was 'troubled'." Minnie explains and that was not what Clementine expected at all, but it does explain why no one here never killed anyone. Well apart from Minnie. "Our parents went here after the QZ got overrun, we thought they're going to stay but the next day they were gone." Clementine wonders why Minnie was sent here but she decides she'll ask when she can ask another question. 

The game continued and the questions weren't that bad, but Clementine's mind was still back when she had to tell them what happened in Los Angeles, she at least hopes she won't have to remind herself of anything like that again, she doesn't have the power to do so. "Earlier you told us that you went looking for someone close to you, who it was?" Ruby asks she probably thought it was Ellie or Dina, no one from the circle heard about AJ apart from Minnie, Ellie heard about him too but doesn't know what happened to him. Clementine clutches her jaw and hand then closes her eyes. 

"She doesn't have to answer that." Minnie shoots back, she imagined how she would feel if she had to see the same happen to Tenn. Clementine opened her eyes, her whole face emotionless. 

"You could say he was my son, I took care of him since he was born." Clementine doesn't say more because she knows she would break if she would, she can only imagine what it would be like if AJ was here and not dead. He'd be five by now, but if he'd be alive Clementine's almost sure she wouldn't be a mercenary making her sure she wouldn't get to know kids from the school. Now the silence is almost painful and after a couple of minutes of it, she just stands up and gets out of the music room to her room. After a couple of minutes Minnie walked inside the room too, she saw that brunette laying on their bed staring blankly at the bunk above her. Red-head lays next to the girl and gently pulls her into an embrace trying to comfort her. "I fucking failed. I fail every damned time, and this is going to end up the same, and knowing my fucking luck, I'll be the only one that will survive." Brunette says as she wraps her hands around the taller girl. Shorter girl hopes she won't have to see anyone die when Delta comes but someone has to die, she's sure of it, someone always dies. She felt her eyes tear up a little and if she would be around anyone else she would go away to be alone but she just lets it out.


	46. Chapter 46

Two weeks have passed since Louis' game and Clementine changed significantly. She is far colder than she ever used to be, she barely talks, eats or sleeps, everyone is worried about the brunette and everyone tried to convince her to at least start eating and sleeping normally but she either ignored them or told them to leave her alone. She changed the plan a little as she noticed that it's going to be hard for everyone to fit behind the limited amounts of cover they have, so Clementine said that two teams will meet Delta head-on, each consists of five people and when they will start having troubles with holding them back they retreat, one of them to dorms and other to the admin building. Javi got back with people that worked around the school and since then the school had water and could take hot showers because they also had electricity, Clementine and Mitch took care of that. 

Everyone is aware that Delta will attack any day now, so everyone carries their weapon around just in case. The only person that won't fight Delta if she doesn't have to is Chloe that will stick in the back making sure that kids won't get hurt. Clementine being back where she was a couple of years ago, at least that's what Ellie thinks, did its part on people's morale. Minnie felt hurt as Clementine barely talked to her and when she did it was just orders or when brunette trained her to use a sniper rifle and she never slept in their room anymore. "We have to do something." Minerva hears Ellie's voice sound through the corridors of the dorms, red-head just left the showers and was about to go to the room with some hope of seeing Clementine there, even if she knew it probably wouldn't happen. 

"No shit. I know that. But as I said, she won't even talk to me. She just told me to get back to my room, nothing else." Another voice can be heard, Chloe's. Minnie is aware that they are talking about Clementine and just that thought made her go to them instead to her room. She saw that Ellie seemed somewhat mad at Chloe's failed attempt to talk to Clem. Minnie knew that it all happened because of all the dark memories that were brought up when they were playing and she now wishes she would answer Clementine's question back in the glasshouse instead of thinking of some stupid game, she blames herself for what happened then. 

"Just the person I wanted to see." Ellie says as she sees Minnie approaching them. "Go and talk to Clementine, because it brings us all down seeing her like this. She's a great leader, true, and she proves that but she can't blame herself for everything that happened to her." Minnie knows that brunette can't blame herself for everything but she doesn't see it that way. And it's going to take a whole lot of work for her to even think it might not be her fault. Minnie was the only person that didn't really try to talk with brunette because she asked her not to and Minnie thought that maybe giving brunette some space might work, but as she found out, it didn't. 

"Okay. I'll go." Minnie quietly says and walks outside, and she immediately regrets that she didn't wear anything more than just some thin clothes that were far more than enough in the dorm rooms since the thermostat was working since they had electricity... Well, it didn't but Clementine fixed most of them and it took brunette three days of constant anger to fix it. The cold air made a tall woman shiver slightly but she was determined to talk with Clementine that was looking at a hand-made map of school grounds with all the traps and positions of different people marked on it. 

Brunette looked over her shoulder as she heard footsteps behind her, she furrowed her brows slightly when she saw the red-head. "You should go to sleep." It was dark and Clementine thought it may work and make Minnie go back. 

"No. I'm tired of seeing you like this." Minnie argues. "You can't just think everything is your fault, you were just a kid, you can't blame yourself." Minnie asks, she placed her hand on Clementine's shoulder wanting her to look at her but Clementine didn't even budge. "Look at me." She demands and brunette reluctantly turns away from the map. Minnie sees the tiredness on Clementine's face dominating over a sort of sadness and anger that was present since the game. "I love you and I understand you. You think that all of us will die because you wanted to fight back and not to just give up, but we're ready for them, they're going to regret they ever fought us. That they ever met us. You made that possible. I get it if you don't want to talk to others, but I beg you, open up at least to me or Ellie." Red-head sees even more conflict on brunette's face, but not between being angry or sad at what happened to her but if she should give in to Minnie's begs or if she shouldn't. 

Brunette crosses her arms, trying to not give in, but she knew that Minerva at least deserved the explanation. "You don't get it. Most of the people in groups I was in died. And I know it's going to happen here too." Clementine explains herself, even if she knows it's a poor explanation. 

"But at least we'll die with a gun in hand." 

Clementine slightly pushes Minnie away. "Yes! But that's how I want to die... I don't want it for you, Ellie, or anyone here." She now slightly regrets she didn't take fighting to Delta, making them focus on her more than on the school while Ellie would make sure they wouldn't get attacked, Clementine would make them back off and leave them alone. 

Just as Clementine was to push Minnie away again and start another rant about how she messed something up Minerva caught her hands before she could. Minnie didn't know what she should do now as she knew it won't take brunette much to break from Minerva's grip, so red-head just leaned a little and kissed the brunette gently, she felt that Clementine didn't kiss back but didn't push her away too so it made a little flame of hope in Minnie's heart. As Minnie pulled away from Clementine's lips she saw brunette's teary eyes and before Minnie straightened up Clementine wrapped her arms around red-head and presses her heads to Minnie's shoulder as her eyes let more tears got away. Minnie hugged brunette back, being giddy with the relief that waved through her as Clementine hugged her, her eyes shut and a happy sigh left her mouth. "I can open up to you. But I need time before others." Clementine states with a weakened and tired voice against Minerva's shoulder. 

"They'll understand. Go take a warm shower, and go to bed, okay?" Minnie asks, red-head feels the slight nod against the shoulder. Clementine pulled away first, tiredness was now more visible and sadness finally won over anger. Brunette went with red-head to the dorms, and while Clementine went to one side of the corridor while Minnie went to the other, she saw that Ellie waited not far from the door leading to Minnie's and Clementine's room, now theirs as Sophie finally moved to Brody's along with all of hers paintings. 

"And?" Ellie asks. 

"Not sure." Minnie answers as she isn't sure how well Clementine feels now, but at least she's somewhat sure she's better. "She said she'll open up to me with her problems, but don't expect her to be the same as she was, she needs time." 

Ellie sighed a little. "Thank fuck." It was all that Ellie said before going to her room. Minnie got inside her room and sat on the bed waiting for brunette to get back.


	47. Chapter 47

It was the day after Minnie talked to Clementine, and when people saw that Clementine was somewhat talking to Minnie they felt some relief, but everyone's anxiety catches up, mostly to Clementine as she leads them, and there are a few people that aren't worried, only Joel, and Kenny. Clementine stopped sending people on hunts or fishing, she's too worried someone's going to get caught and if they will she isn't sure if they could save them from Delta's hands. She even has a plan to stop the fight from happening even if she knows that it's almost unavoidable. "How are you feeling?" She hears Minnie ask, she has two bowls of some stew, she doesn't answer for a second because she started eating first, she didn't eat anything for a long time and it caught up to her. 

"Like I'm going to blow up if the smallest thing is going to fuck up?" Clementine answers honestly, she expects that something will happen and she won't be able to do anything about it. "You remember the plan?" She modified it slightly last day, now Kyle will be waiting on top of the Admin Building with MG and mow the Delta soldiers if Clementine won't be able to avoid blood spill, no one knows she has a plan to stop from anything happening to anyone. 

"Yes, when Delta appears I'm waiting in the marked room that has the sight on the courtyard with a sniper rifle for your sign and start taking out snipers if they have any." Minerva replies, she got it almost engraved in her mind by now, she remembers that Clementine asked her if she remembers the plan every day. Clementine nods as if she's proud of Minnie, and she kind of is, she knows that it's not her first fight, but first on that scale. It's late evening, and they're sitting in their rooms, everyone, apart from one person on the watch duty, Omid. 

There's the same map on Clementine's lap as she put her bowl on other, she wasn't paying attention to the bowl much, she was eating almost blindly risking that it's going to fall. Minnie wondered why she was still looking at the map, they thought of every possibility, at least that's what everyone believes, they have electricity, so Clementine doesn't have to sit at the desk all night with a candle and if Minnie would want to she could make Clementine lay down and make her got to sleep, instead of looking at the map all the time. Her hair are still slightly wet, she always went to the shower last, Minerva asked about this and apparently, Clementine doesn't like people seeing her scars and she felt bad enough for a couple of people finding out about scars on her wrists. Brunette feels the light and loving touch on her shoulder, encouraging her to finish her stew, put the map away, and go to sleep. Yesterday, she would refuse, but today, she gives in and put the map away for a second on the pillow to focus on her stew, she puts the bowl in her hand, feeling how hot it is on her palm. She wasn't eating fast, she felt how Minerva slowly caressed the side of her arm slowly while waiting for brunette to finish her stew. 

Clementine felt the how the food warmed her up, she felt the slight relief waving down on her as she heard the quietness in her head for the first time for a long time, she always heard the voices of her anxiety and fear of what's going to happen when Delta attacks. She doesn't feel tired but she wants to feel Minnie's embrace, she can't wait to feel it again. She stands up, her, now, empty bowl in one hand, map in other. She opened one of the drawers and put the map there and put the bowl next to Minnie, planning to put it away tomorrow when it'll be warmer. She was about to hop back on the bed and melt into Minerva's embrace, but a small, orange point in the distance gets caught by her eyes and many, many more after it. Her heart drops as she quickly picks up Minerva's sniper rifle and looks through the scope on the lights. Her heart beats incredibly fast, she can't even hear Minerva's questions what's wrong, even though she's almost sure what's going on. She sees the human figures lightly illuminated by torches they are holding, she isn't sure how many of them are there, she won't be able to count them that fast. "Oh fuck..." Clementine mutters out, she heard the same voices back in her head. "It's happening." She looks away from the scope and she finally starts hearing normally again. 

"They're here?" Brunette doesn't answer, she just hands Minnie her sniper rifle and runs out the room after picking up her rifle along with some magazines. Clementine started to yell, so everybody will get up whilst running down the corridor knocking on every door, she was shouting the word she told to others meaning Delta got to the school. All rooms got quickly opened, people that were just going to sleep all ready to meet Delta, going to their positions, when Clementine was sure everybody was up, she ran to the courtyard and stood in front of the Admin Building along with Luke, Kenny, Wyatt, and Elliot. And by the dorms stood Ellie, Joel, Dina, and Javi. Omid ran down the stairs back to the Admin building when he heard Clementine. 

They were waiting for Delta to come to them, they had to sooner or later, Clementine's heart was beating rapidly, she was rarely that scared of a fight, but there's a difference between fighting by yourself and when people you begin to call your family by your side. But she had a calm look on her face, she wasn't going to show her fear, she couldn't let the others see her doubts now. "You think we'll survive this?" She hears Luke ask, but she knows that he won't back off now. 

"Not sure, but I sure as hell hope so." They hear many footsteps, Clementine suspects they don't try to sneak as they didn't try earlier to hide with torches. One light knock on the gates can be heard, Clementine pulled the bolt of her rifle, as she heard people around her getting their weapons ready too. Just as Clementine was to get closer to the gates and check what's going on, a huge explosion makes all of them lean down to avoid pieces of metal flying around, but right after that, Clementine first, are aiming at the entrance. She saw at least ten people walking inside the courtyard, with at least twice that outside. The woman leading the group had a familiar face like she saw it a long time ago, but she ignored it. Their eyes locked for a second, she saw the pure determination and anger at first, but she saw that woman looked a little higher, on her hat, and a shock settled on the face. 

"Clementine?" She heard the woman say, she could see a couple of surprised looks on her. Now she focused on a woman's face and she saw a person she never thought she will see ever again. 

"Lilly."


	48. Chapter 48

Brunette never expected to see Lilly ever again, and she definitely didn't expect her to be leading a squad to kill or kidnap her or her friends, she wonders if the woman knew she's there and is just pretending to be surprised, but it didn't change a thing. "You know her?" She hears Wyatt's surprised voice, she sees how Kenny glares at Lilly, she probably doesn't recognize him. 

"Long story." She tells him. Clementine turned to Lilly, still aiming at her. "I didn't think I'd say that, but I'll give you one chance to get the fuck out of here." A couple of them laugh, they don't know what waits for them if they will have to fight. 

"And if we won't?" Lilly asks, a confident smirk on her face while Clementine looks at her with an emotionless stare. 

"You will die." She informs and now even more of them laugh, Lilly included but she does that just to prove her point of having a one hundred percent chance of winning. Even if she doesn't have even fifty. 

"What happened to the sweet little girl Lee protected? And judging that he's not here I can guess he died, probably because of you too." Clementine clutched her hands tighter against the rifle when she heard that. Brunette shook her head slightly, she regrets that Lee didn't pay Lilly back with the same thing she did to Carley. 

Brunette knows that Lilly won't back off and neither she will, not after all she suffered through just to get here. "Lilly shut the fuck up. We both know we won't back off, what's the point to argue?" She asks, her plan to deal with this peacefully won't work, even if Lilly would agree brunette couldn't just let her go. 

"You really want to die? For what? A couple of people? They'll die too. If you surrender they would live longer." 

"At least we die on our terms." That was a set phrase for Minnie to start shooting, and Clementine was only hoping she heard that. Lilly opened her mouth to say something more but got interrupted with a loud bang of the sniper rifle, and in a corner of her eye brunette saw a body falling off the tree. She pulled the trigger but missed her and before she could try again a bullet hit the table she is hiding behind. Her heart was racing from adrenaline, she leaned out and pulled the trigger a couple of times probably hitting a couple of them. 

She glanced at the five people protecting the dorms, they were holding Delta off. "Lure them out!" She hears a male voice, and not long after that a pipe lands at her legs with a lit fuse. On instinct she grabbed the explosive and threw it back, she quickly dragged Wyatt down to protect him from the explosion. When it went off it started to ring in her ears, she knows that they can't stay there for long or they'll get mowed down. 

"We need to retreat. We'll cover Ellie and the rest first, then we'll go." She tells them and then gestures to Ellie to retreat. When she saw that Ellie was nodding, Clementine and her team leaned out and started to fire at Delta's men not trying to hit anyone but just trying to get them to stop shooting for a second. As they did that Ellie and the rest got to the dorms and Clementine stopped shooting as she pushed another magazine in. "Wait." They are waiting for the whole dorms and Kyle to cover their retreat now. When a machine gun roared from above them Clementine yelled to run. 

When they got inside they didn't wait and rushed up the stairs to the rope activating a trap prepared by Aasim and Willy. She listened to the footsteps and cut the rope hearing as bone cracked under the pressure of bags of bricks. She heard screams of others downstairs and many footsteps, some of them had to make it to the building or Kyle had to retreat. "Go, I'll try and push them off long enough." She tells them, most of the rest of the people are scattered around the building. 

A bullet flows right next to her head and she shoots back at the woman and hits her in the neck. Clementine aimed down the stairs and waited for someone from Delta to come up, but before that happened she saw a person running up about halfway up the stairs before throwing a Molotov in her direction. As the flames caught everything around her she coughs as tears blur her vision from all the smoke. She retreats to the office, her hand clutching the rifle firmly. She heard footsteps going closer to the office, she aimed at the door before it opened with a slam. She pulled the trigger when the person with a pipe in the hand walked in, she wondered if they had enough guns to arm everyone in their group, she managed to hit the man in the shoulder before the rifle jammed as the man rushed at her despite the shoulder. 

"Shit." She cussed as she threw the rifle aside, but before she could even try she got hit with the pipe in the side of her head. Clementine quickly got back up, even with her head feeling like it's about to explode. She waited for another swing of the pipe and when it happened she narrowly dodged it and twisted the arm wielding the pipe making it fall, she then knees him in the gut. She pushes him away and picks the pipe up before hitting him in the head making him fall, she proceeded to hit him in the head for a couple of times before his face was a mess. She went to her rifle, dropping the bloodied pipe, but before she could even grab it she heard another person rushing into the room and charging at her. 

She felt a pain in her back as she was slammed against it, she saw that it was Lilly that charged at her, she tried punching the woman, but was too weak and felt another two punches to her face and then Lilly let her go. She saw that Lilly pulled out a knife, shooting all around them, a couple of screams but the pain in her head didn't let her determine if it was her people or Delta's. "I told you to give up!" She hears Lilly screaming while she slashes the knife at her hitting brunette's forearm. She winced and tried to hit Lilly but the taller woman just moved aside. 

Brunette had an idea, if she would rush at Lilly they would fall out the balcony and with a little luck she'll survive while Lilly will not, or at least it will give her enough time to finish her. The problem is that Lilly will easily dodge her attack. She waited for an opportunity and when she saw Lilly charging at her again to stab her, she saw it. She didn't even try to dodge the attack and let Lilly stab her in the gut, she winced loudly, one of her hands making sure that Lilly won't get the knife out and the other grabbing her neck, she felt a couple of hits to her ribs but she just used the remains of her power and rushed to the balcony slamming Lilly against the railing that quickly let the fall down. 

Clementine landed on her side and she heard something crack inside when she did. She let out a painful cry and tried to stand up, knife still inside her. She pushed herself before she saw Lilly running towards her and Clementine couldn't even stand up when she felt getting slammed against the ground, Lilly grabbed her face and slammed back of her head against the ground a couple of times before placing both her hand around Clementine's neck and clutching them hard. 

She tried to push Lilly off, but it was to no avail, she slowly agreed to the idea of dying by the hands of an old friend. Until she opened her eyes again with determination in them, Lilly didn't give up and ignored that fact, but Clementine's hand went to her abdomen and pulled out the knife, she wanted to cry out in pain but held it in and pushed the knife in Lilly's guts a couple of times making the woman let go of her. She coughed harshly and tried to catch a breath, she saw Lilly clutching her abdomen as she leaned against the admin building. Clementine quickly grabbed the knife firmer and as fast as she possibly can push the blade against the woman's neck a couple of times, blood covering the entire blade and handle. 

Clementine clutched the wound after the knife and leaned against the same building Lilly was leaning against and let herself fall. She was breathing heavily and everything felt like it was fading away, but she still head some shooting around and grabbed a pistol that is holstered in her pants. She tried standing up, but her legs were giving in, she heard a shout that was too incoherent to understand and then she heard another gun firing and she felt something tearing through her biceps of the arm that was still clutching the knife, adrenaline allowed her to bring her pistol once more and shoot a couple of times the woman that shot her, she saw the woman fall dead. 

The vision was getting darker with each second. She was feeling weak and her life leaving her body, her eyes were getting forced to close, she fought it, but the urge to close them was too big. She heard someone scream, the gunfire stopped a while ago, she was laying in pool of her own blood, she was somewhat content with how the fight turned out, even if she doesn't know if they won. Soon darkness consumes her vision.


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, no I'm not dead. The reason for which I didn't upload so much is that my new school's kicking my ass and I either don't have any ideas to write more chapters or I'm too tired to come up with anything. I'm sorry for such a delay, this single chapter took me around twenty days to write. Yet I thought of that possibility in advance and made some light sketches of new works just in case I wouldn't be able to come up with any new ones after beginning school, so you don't have to worry about me stopping uploading after finishing 'Just Come Back' and I won't be that surprised that by the time I actually finish it my school will go on online classes. That being out of the way I just want to say that this story was quite big to me in more than just having something else to do apart from gaming, I put my heart into it as much as I could and wanted it to be as good as it possibly could, it has many flaws, of course, being my first story to ever see daylight, that and the fact that I found much support here on my writing that made me more confident about it too, so I want to thank all of you for supporting this from the start. There were plans to actually edit some chapters fixing things like walkers at the start and some of the more stupid ideas I came up with and never actually ending their plots but I'm not sure when it'll be done completely, as maybe if someone saw three first chapters maybe saw that they're edited already, but my school might screw over my plans. And also I'm not sure about how often updates will come out, but you can be sure that sooner or later I will update my stories.  
For anyone that reads this whole thing, have a nice day/night!

Minerva stared off the distance, someone that doesn't know her or see her face, could think she's watching out for that part of the forest like she just saw something or someone that can pose a threat. In reality, her mind just races around, she can't focus on one thought in particular. It was well over a year and a half since their last fight with Delta, and no one still could believe how much blood was spilled at the start it was toughest on Minnie and Sophie, the slightly shorter twin was blaming herself for all of the blood. The others stayed for a couple of days to recover both mentally and physically. Right after the brunette Joel, Kyle, Mitch, and Elliot. Joel was beaten up with a bat but Ellie managed to get to the bat-wielder, Kyle got shot when he fired the LMG, Mitch lost a finger to a Delta soldier with a cleaver, and Elliot was pushed out from the first floor from dorms. The rest had a couple of minor bruises or scratches, nothing too serious that Dina and Ruby couldn't quickly patch up. 

Red-head still felt sick when she thought how Clementine ended, all the blood and Lilly's body almost making brunette fall over completely on the ground and if that would happen they would find Clementine a lot of later. Brunette's biceps torn apart by a bullet, her clothes all soaked with blood, at least she went down after putting up a deadly fight. She doesn't even want to imagine what Clementine felt whilst killing that woman, she later found out from Kenny she was a part of their old group, and that was probably the only reason why Mitch wasn't going all around the school's yard, that and his bitchy crying over his pinky finger. She's pretty sure if brunette heard or saw that she would either tell Mitch to man up or laugh at him. She wished that brunette was there when Sophie has had a mental breakdown after the fight, her sister respected Clementine's words and that could have helped then. 

Ellie, Joel, and Dina went back to Jackson. Javi and Mariana went back to Richmond. Apart from them everyone stayed, of course, members of New Frontier had to ask if they can stay and Javi didn't argue, he still remembers the deal he made with Sophie and Clementine, it more worth it than a couple of people, only four soldiers, and even if, Luke, Kenny, Wyatt, and Kyle will go and help with the war if necessary, but Delta fell a couple of months after their fight with the school. Brunette tries to visit both Ellie and Dina as well as Javi, Kate, Mariana, and Gabe about once a month, she usually takes someone with her just in case, and usually, Minnie was the one going to Richmond wanting to make sure Gabe won't try anything. 

A tiny crack of a stick makes her raise her rifle, the same she used over a year ago. She firmly presses the stock against her shoulder, as she slowly moves to her left trying to get a better angle on a backside of a tree from where the sound came from. She has a great view of the place, but no one's there, she thinks for a second that maybe she just imagined it but then she felt a cold barrel of a pistol in the center of her back. "Ain't that a bitch?" She hears a snort of a very familiar voice, she put her rifle down and raised her hands in the air, a small, confident smirk spreads on her face. 

Red-head wonders what a person behind her will do next, her smirk stays all the time, she may have a pistol pressed against her back, but she's sure that no one will fire. 

She slowly lets her hands fall as she feels a trail of wet kisses go down her neck, pistol lowered too already. A content, quiet, chuckle through redhead's closed lips can be heard. She timed her next move precisely, just as the person behind her moved her to kiss further down Minnie's spine, red-head turned around, a smile tugged on her lips, using the moment of confusion from a woman standing, now, in front of her, Minerva places her hands on the brown thighs and without a warning jolt the woman up. 

A surprised yelp escapes woman's lips as she wraps her legs around Minerva's waist. "You still don't have enough?" She asks as she presses the dark-skinned woman against a nearby tree. Using a small window of time she presses her lips softly against the woman's jaw repetitively, black curls of hair tickling at her forehead. A low and long sigh can be heard as Minnie got closer and closer to the neck and a field of hickeys from the previous night. 

"Don't stop." It sounded more like a plead than a request, but Minnie was too soft for the short, dark-skinned, scarred woman she loved and adored with her signature hat, to refuse the pleadings. 

Clementine clutched onto her wanting red-head to continue her work and she also knows that if Minerva drops her it might hurt. Minnie shortly stopped kissing, before a whine of disappointment could get outside Clementine's mouth she saw Minnie quickly close into her face, soon their lips clashed as the tounges battled over domination. The women felt like the temperature was going higher and higher and Minnie closing the distance between them completely isn't making it easier too. 

Minerva felt brunette's hands leave her neck as they wandered under the front of Minerva's t-shirt to all the way to the breasts covered by a bra. A tiny, muffled moan escaped from between Minerva's lips, she could sense, even if their eyes were closed and their tounges too preoccupied with fighting over dominance, that Clementine was proud that she still keeps up with Minerva's pace of the heated moment. Out of the instinct, Minerva's hips buck into Clementine's heat making the shorter woman release a moan somewhat mixed with a chuckle, but Minnie's action made brunette clutch her hand that was still lying on Minerva's breast making the taller girl moan again, but slightly louder. 

Soon Minnie was the first to pull back just for a second and went back to the neck. She heard the fastened breathing of a woman and felt her heart racing right now. "You know that we have to be back soon?" She barely hears the unsteady and breathy voice over the beating of her heart. They were supposed to check out if Clementine's biceps could handle some more work outside the school, of course, she sneaked out a lot alone, but Minnie was sure nothing could happen to a woman that survived that much. 

"But I don't wanna come back just yet." She purred against Clementine's neck sending a wave of shivers down brunette's spine. But brunette knew it was more than just the situation they were in, Kenny noticed the hickeys on Clementine's neck, and if looks could kill she would be in the grave for a long time now. Actually, Christa, Omid, and Luke had similar looks on their faces. 

"So you prefer them to find us like that? I'm sure it's better than just seeing the hickeys." Minerva groaned, she knows that Clementine is right and she really, really, doesn't want anyone to see them like that. She slowly let Clementine go, not before leaving the last tender kiss on the brunette's lips, and picking up the hat she didn't even know had fallen off. 

Her eye took a quick glance at the biceps of Clementine as she handed her the hat, the place she was shot was slightly deformed and had a different skin color, Dina said that it won't recover completely because of the depth of the wound, but she'll be able to do everything normally just the slight deformation and lack of feeling anything in that spot. "Come on." Brunette rushed, Minnie saw that she too wished to continue what they started, but right now she just hoped it's going to be continued later on. She took her rifle and let it hang on her back as she fixed her clothes and hair just to look like nothing happened, she saw Clementine doing the same. But the throbbing in her core isn't helping. 

As they slowly wandered back Clementine looked at her girlfriend wondering what she's thinking about. "That explains why I sneaked up on you so easily." That made Minnie look at the shorter girl with a smirk on her face. The summer was relaxing, the ability to walk without too much clothing, sure, it can get hot on the bed, but Clementine made sure that thermostats were working in all of the rooms that were occupied, and it was met with quite a huge praise from all the residents. A year ago Clementine would wear something to hide all of her scars across her arms, legs, but now she wears them proudly as well as her tattoo. She still plans to do another one, but still doesn't know when or where. "What were you thinking about?" She asks while looking over her shoulder, she saw a small smirk forming again on her girlfriend's face. 

"How gay I am. And how much I love you." One of the things that changed is how often Minnie mentioned she loves the brunette, almost every time she has the occasion to she admits that no matter who's around, and it is only because she always is afraid it might be the last time she says it. 

"The first thing can see everyone that has eyes and more than two brain cells." 

"So pretty much everybody apart from Louis?" Clementine releases a low chuckle at that. 

"Yeah, more or less. And I love you too." 

They saw the gates, Kyle on the tower looking through his binoculars, Violet and Jade are sitting on the wall, talking, two got closer to each other since the fight, no one actually knows if there's something more between them, but Louis bets there is. And Minnie is happy that Violet moved on from her. "How dead are we?!" Brunette asks Kyle, she knows they're very late, she sees Kyle slowly look at the two at the gates. 

He motions for someone to open the gate before answering. "On one hand not much, Kenny got over y'all being late, but Wyatt had a good laugh in the morning. On the other hand, you appear with them this morning then disappear with a person that gave you those for a couple of hours." He releases a chuckle of his own remembering Kenny's reaction this morning and how fast Minnie wanted to move out when she saw him. The gates opened slowly, Kate and Chloe behind them. 

"Well, we're fucked." Minnie whispers knowing that it's right and the fact they spent so much time just walking around school's territory stopped them from taking the previous heated moment even further. "Kyle, wanna change on the lookout? Like, right now?!" She asks and Clementine just looks at her with a faked shock that Minnie wants to leave her all alone with consequences, even if they did decide that they won't say a thing earlier. 

"Ha, no way kid. And besides, I don't think you can be on the lookout forever." Kyle responds. 

"We'll just stick to saying it's none of their business." The brunette was still surprised that no one found out earlier, they weren't exactly quiet. "And I seriously doubt they'll actually say anything. And if they will I might die out of embarrassment." 

"Oh, they won't talk to you but to me. You know to give me the talk 'hurt her and I'll break every single bone in your body' type." Minerva crossed her arms and somewhat huffed, it's not how she wanted that day to go. 

"Don't overreact. Christa, Omid, Luke, and Kenny separately asked me if I'm happy with you. You only have to worry about Kenny and there's still a small percentage of a chance he actually will." Clementine explains as she slides her arm around Minnie's waist and wiggles her index finger on a specific spot on the taller woman's ribs where she is ticklish and in response her girlfriend squirms away from it as her hand grabbed that finger. Red-head turned her head down at the brunette that was smiling proudly and teasingly making Minnie roll her eyes but not stopping her from smiling herself. 

"There you are! You're late like an hour." Louis calls out as he spots the two approaching the table where he sits with James, Sophie, and Brody. Clementine saw some sort of annoyed expression on Minerva's face but she knows that it's either faked or just an instinct by now since Louis can be a big asshole sometimes. "So bets on the table, how much y'all bet that Minnie will fucking die from Kenny's hand." Louis chuckles for a quick second before he gets elbowed by his boyfriend that looks at him warningly one good thing that came out of having James around is that he's able to somewhat keep Louis from making some comments. 

"He's not as bad as he looks. So did anything worth mentioning happen?" 

"Not exactly, Mitch, Wyatt, and Elliot didn't come back from the hunt yet. Uh... We might need to secure the crops, there might be a storm coming in a couple of days too." Brody informs. 

"Okay, I'll deal with it tomorrow, or maybe this evening if we manage. And you know how hunts with Wyatt goes, they won't come back unless they have some decent amount of food." Brunette slightly smiles as she recalls when Minnie came back from a two-day hunt not long after brunette woke up after a fight with Delta and the red-head didn't even say a thing but collapsed one the bed and passed out immediately, Clementine later found out that Wyatt dragged them for so long. 

"How's your arm?" Sophie asks not caringly, she knew about Clementine sneaking away as she caught her once sneaking back in, but the red-head was surprisingly understanding and every time brunette wanted to get away she'd let her. 

Clementine moved her shoulder slightly. "Good. Managed to sneak up on Minnie without trouble. And here Mitch was thinking I lost my touch." She says teasingly and Minnie just rolls her eyes, red-head became quite a good sniper but too eager and impatient in Clementine's opinion, and that what usually would get her killed if she ever went alone against multiple foes. 

Louis laughed at that sentence slightly. "Oh, this is the only thing you did? Hm?" Clementine only noticed a slight change on Minerva's face and then Louis wincing in pain as he grabbed his leg. "Okay! I'll stop." He raised his other hand in surrender. "You have a really bad influence on her, Clem." 

"Oh, screw you. If anything she influences me, but in a good way." 

"How come?" James asks before Louis could even open his mouth. 

"Well, I don't kill as much, don't risk my life as much, ain't miserable as much. The list's long." She admits, she doesn't remember the last year she felt at so much peace with herself like she finally found herself a place where she belongs. 

"You wouldn't if not for Sophie letting you use our meds not long after we kicked your ass out." Louis argues with a slight note of sarcasm. 

"Then my life would've ended. And with that yours too, at least at the school." She still feels shivers whenever she thinks of the battle with Delta, so many people depending on her, yet no one ended up dead. 

"You're literally too angry to die." Louis comments and Clementine doesn't even argue about that part and no one says anything about it either. 

They continued bickering like that for quite a while to the point where Chloe and Kate joined them too while the rest was doing their assignments and tasks, they continued it even while eating Louis finding some comment about Clementine's old style of life or her relationship with a certain red-head. But when she thought about that, she wouldn't have wanted anything other, the only thing that could make it better would be Ellie and Dina being here too but the two have their own house and responsibilities. 

She spent a good couple of years trying to survive just simply because that would be what others expected, people that sacrificed herself for her or just close ones that died, she didn't notice no one that cared about her and that person was Ellie for quite a long time, but this school made her see just how wrong she was, there was always someone that cared even if she didn't notice that, and all of that changed in around two months since she arrived in this school, met death many times, and in the end prevailed over her death, fears and worries. She cheated death, found love, found family both new and long lost, all of that thanks to this school and the people in it. 

A place she proudly can name her own home.


End file.
